P.M. BRIEFING : Inventor of Potato Masher Dies

PARIS — French industrialist Jean Mantelet, who vowed to free women from cooking chores and built an industrial giant on a potato masher, has died a month after retiring, his Moulinex company said today.

Mantelet, known in France as “Monsieur Moulinex,” died at his Paris home Saturday. He was 90.

Mantelet became famous overnight in France 58 years ago when he invented a machine to help his wife mash potatoes easily.

The masher was an instant hit with housewives and Mantelet went on to found Moulinex, one of the world’s most successful household appliance companies.

It coined the slogan “Moulinex frees women” and launched a range of electrical appliances to grind, chop, mince and slice, and later produced hair-dryers and vacuum cleaners.