Patent model for a sieve invented by
Mrs. John D. Jones of Jersey City,1868.
Courtesy, New Jersey Historical Society 

Click on image to enlarge.

After the middle of the 19th century, with increased emphasis on efficiency in housework and new ways to manufacture household implements, women, as well as men, devised methods to make housework less time consuming.  Household advisors, such as Mary Virginia Howes Terhune, wrote about new innovations for cooking and laundering in their books.  In 1868, Mrs. John D. Jones of Jersey City received a patent  for her improved sieve and in 1869 Sarah E. Strickland of Southern Vineland received a patent for an improved clothes dryer.