LILLIAN MOLLER GILBRETH is credited with inventing the layout of the modern kitchen.

It’s an interesting story. Here’s a 2012 article about her from Slate. Gilbreth, described as an industrial psychologist and engineer, had 12 children (and the help of servants). She was an anonymous assistant to her husband until his death, at which point she pursued their joint field on her own.

She did motion studies of women working in the kitchen and introduced “Gilbreth’s Kitchen Practical” at a Women’s Exposition in 1929. The design is similar that in many kitchens today.

In the 1940s, what Gilbreth called “circular routing” became known as the kitchen “work triangle,” a concept that designers still rely on today. In an efficiently planned kitchen, the perimeter of the triangle formed by stove, sink, and refrigerator should be no greater than 26 feet, with a typical distance of 5.5 feet between appliances.

As neat as her ideas are, others probably would have come up with them if she hadn’t. But no one else could have come up with those twelve Gilbreths.

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