Results
#1. Gilbreth is the inventor of which common kitchen appliance?
In addition to inventing the foot-pedal garbage can, she also filed patents to improve the electric can opener and conducted countless studies to improve the ergonomics of the modern kitchen for General Electric.
#2. Gilbreth was lifelong friends with this U.S. President and his wife.
Gilbreth met Herbert Hoover, a fellow engineer, during her time in California. This connection lead to her appointment to various government and charitable positions.
#3. Lillian’s children once described her kitchen as this.
Gilbreth channeled her distate for housework into scientific studies to simplify work for homemakers.
#4. Why was Gilbreth denied a PhD at the University of California?
Gilbreth’s dissertation was later published as a book, but she was denier her degree to to failing to meet a residency requirement. She later earner her PhD at Brown University.
#5. This book, which described life in the Gilbreth family after the death of Frank Gilbreth, Sr., was made into a motion picture in 1952.
The first book about the Gilbreth family, Cheaper by the Dozen, was made into a movie in 1950. Its sequel, Belles on their Toes, was adapted for the silver screen two years later.
#6. Lillian and her husband, Frank, were the first to use this technique in time-motion studies.
The Gilbreths’ work formed the basis of what we now call ergonomics.
I knew a lot about Lillian Gilbreth having done a presentation showing Lillian and Frank’s vast contributions, not only to I/O but their impact on a variety of academic fields. Now I have a few other little known facts.