The Silestone Institute Celebrates Female Innovators
In light of International Women’s Day, the Silestone Institute is celebrating a small selection of female innovators and their revolutionary inventions.
Often, advances in technology are designed to make day-to-day tasks easier. The Silestone Institute, an international platform supported by the Cosentino Group and dedicated to researching and disseminating knowledge about the kitchen as a professional and domestic space, is celebrating International Women’s Day by shining a spotlight on three female innovators behind some of the most used kitchen essentials.
The Fridge
The fridge is an essential appliance in any modern kitchen for storing and preserving fresh produce and meats. At the beginning of the twentieth century, American innovator and entrepreneur, Florence Parpart filed a patent for the first modern electric refrigerator. A predecessor of today’s appliance, it brought about a true revolution when it came to conserving food.
The Dishwasher
American, Josephine Cochrane is the brilliant mind behind the invention of the first commercially successful dishwashing appliance in 1887. Cochrane first sold her invention to her friends and advertised it in newspapers as the Cochrane Dishwasher. She founded her own company, the Garis-Cochran Dish-Washing Machine Company, which would later become part of what is now known as the Whirlpool Corporation. In 2006, Cochran was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for this highly coveted and valued appliance.
The Coffee Filter
Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz, a German inventor and entrepreneur, found that the traditional copper pot she used to brew coffee fell short when it came to delivering a smooth brew. She was inspired to use a piece of blotting paper from her son’s school book to fashion a filter to catch the grounds, and in 1908 she was granted a patent for her invention. Melitta Bentz began mass-scale production and today the Melitta Group continues to be a successful producer of coffee, paper coffee filters and coffee makers.
About the Silestone Institute
The Silestone Institute is an international platform dedicated to researching and disseminating knowledge about the kitchen as a professional and domestic space. The Institute is an initiative promoted by the Cosentino Group, a world leader in the production and distribution of state-of-the-art innovative surfaces for architecture and design.
