Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 9, 1994                   TAG: 9403090192
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE 'STEAM SERVANT GIRL' HAS COME A LONG WAY, BABY

Cochran, born in 1839 at Shelbyville, Ind., got her first patent for a commercial dishwasher in 1886. In 1892, she moved to Chicago to get ready for the World's Fair and was the only woman to exhibit her own invention at the 1893 Great Columbian Exposition.

The handbill advertising her dishwasher, which a Scottish paper called a ``steam servant girl,'' said the device ``washes, scalds, rinses and dries five to 20 dozen dishes in two minutes.''

Cochran sold nine of her washers at the fair to hotels such as the Biltmore in New York City and Palmer House in Chicago. Then she started Garis-Cochran Manufacturing Co.

The reason we're hearing about Cochran now is because the KitchenAid automatic dishwasher is observing its 45th anniversary. Garis-Cochran was sold to Bromlety-Merseles Manufacturing of Chicago, which in 1924 was bought by Crescent Washing Machine, which then merged with Hobart Co., which in 1949 introduced the KitchenAid automatic dishwasher. Today KitchenAid is a brand of Whirlpool Corp.

Among the historic points made by company spokesman Don Stuart: It wasn't easy for Cochran to get into the fair in the first place - there was controversy over whether a woman should exhibit - and it was even more impressive that her device took first place for ``best mechanical construction, durability and adaptation to the line of work.''

Tultex Corp., which has been belt-tightening at its headquarters in Martinsville and its plant in Roanoke because of softness in the knitwear industry, has a new message for consumers:

Tultex says wearing its Discus brand activewear is appropriate for any activity and avoids the frustration of shopping for specialized activewear.

Commercials, which had their debut on Raycom Sports' telecasts of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball games, say the knitwear business has become too specialized, which, they say, makes purchasing confusing. The telecasts are sent to 17 markets on the Atlantic Coast.

On the Pacific Coast, Discus has concentrated on helping earthquake victims by joining with Big 5 Sporting Goods of El Segundo, Calif., to give $100,000 to emergency relief. Discus supplies Big 5 stores.

Nabisco, which mostly got out of the cereal business when it sold Shredded Wheat to Kraft General Foods, now wants back in.

Nabisco is introducing a fat-free cereal bar under its SnackWell's brand and granola bars named after its Oreo, Chips Ahoy! and Nutter Butter brands. All are aimed at morning consumption when, according to company research, 24 percent of all snacking takes place. Initial markets for the new products are the greater Dallas area; Jacksonville, Fla.; and upstate New York.

The SnackWell's bar goes up against Kellogg's Nutri-Grain cereal bar, which has sales of more than $100 million a year. In granola bars, Nabisco's trio of brands will bump heads with Quaker Oats Co.'s Chewy, with sales of $95 million, and M&M/Mars' Kudos, with sales of $61 million.

Quaker Oats Co.'s newest Gatorade flavor, Lemon Ice, will be marketed for warm weather as a colorless liquid. Quaker has an 85 percent share of the sports-drink market in North America, which amounted to $750 million in sales at the wholesale level in the past fiscal year. Quaker recently introduced Gatorade in Chile and Australia. Through a licensing agreement, the drink does $70 million in business in Korea annually.