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Was Cochran’s dishwasher patented before Spangler’s portable electric vacuum cleaner?

Yes. Cochran’s dishwasher patent (patented 1886) came 22 years before Spangler’s vacuum-cleaner patent (patented 1908).

1884188618881890189218941896189819001902190419061910 Dishwasher (Cochran’s patent)1886 Portable electric vacuum cleaner190822 years apart
1880189019001920 Dishwasher (Cochran’s patent)1886 Portable electric vacuumcleaner190822 years apart
Both dates on one time ruler: Dishwasher (Cochran’s patent), patented 1886; Portable electric vacuum cleaner, patented 1908.

The duel opens first in a practice round of ten; practice never changes your daily streak.

Why it surprises

Both machines feel like products of the modern household, and the vacuum cleaner, which seems the simpler tool, might look like the older one. But Josephine Cochran’s dishwasher patent was granted in 1886, 22 years before James Murray Spangler’s 1908 patent for a portable electric vacuum cleaner. Cochran designed her machine to wash dishes by machine instead of by hand, and her first customers were hotels and restaurants rather than ordinary households, which is one reason it is not remembered as a household invention of the 1880s. Machines for cleaning floors existed before 1908, and home dishwashers took decades to catch on, so this duel compares two named patents, not first prototypes or the years families started using them. On that measure, the dishwasher wins clearly.

Sources for this explanation

  • National Inventors Hall of Fame: invent.org, checked 25 October 2026
  • United States Patent Office: patents.google.com, checked 25 October 2026

Where the numbers come from

Each value was checked against two independent sources, quoted on its page. Details: Dishwasher (Cochran’s patent) and Portable electric vacuum cleaner.

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