Dishwasher, Alarm Clock, Cordless PhoneIn 1883, a socialite named Josephine Cochran of Illinois was displeased with her servants chipping her fine china, so she started thinking of a machine that could do the dishes for her. Four years later, with much trial and error, she came up with a dishwasher and introduced the machine at the 1893 World's Fair. By the time they came into homes in the 1950s, dishwashers had evolved with electricity and plumbing hookups. Next, the first clock, the sundial, was invented by the ancient Greeks in about 1450 BC. In 250 BC, they created an early alarm clock. Water flowed into a container, making an object in the water float higher and higher. That floating object not only told the time, but it also triggered a mechanical bird that whistled the alarm's bell. Fast-forward another thousand years to 1876, when the sons of a famous Connecticut clockmaker invented the first wind-up alarm clock, complete with the ringing bells on top. Then, the first cordless phone was two large boxes holding vacuum tubes that did the work of radio transistors. Due to its weight, size and limited range, this model never made it out of the laboratory. In the 1980s, cordless phones finally started to take off. They used radio frequencies, as we do today, but now they are clear, reliable and affordable and far outsell standard phones with cords.
