wrote in message
ups.com...
Doctor Drivel wrote:

In yea olden dayes the dishwasher
was a large tray of water with powder like sand. It sand blasted the
dishes
clean, hence why you could not put patterned plates in the things.

Early dw machines can be seen on various net sites, and in books from
the time. They used flow of hot water and soap to clean the dishes, and
were only really effective on freshly used still wet food. They were
used in large kitchens, being ineffective for smaller scale use.
Restaurant machines are descended from these, todays home machines use
somewhat different principles. The simplest early dishwashers were no
more than a sink of hot soapy water with a pump to circulate it, plus a
clean rinsing sink.

If you have any reference or link to sandblasting dishwashers I'd be
curious to see it, but I'm doubtful.

Did you ever feel that powder? My first dishwasher would clean the chrome
over grills and shelves spotless, as it sand blasted them. The powder was
course and took a long time to dissolve. The new one does not. But the
crockery is much cleaner.