At the beginning of the twentieth century, New York City may have been very picturesque in the snow and ice, however, it was not much fun if you were trying to drive a trolley car at the time. Then the only solution was for the driver to keep the windshield up and constantly get out every few minutes to clear the slush that built up on the windshield.
Mary Anderson (1866-1953) was visiting New York when she noticed this predicament, and when she returned home she jotted down a solution. Her device was a swinging arm with a rubber blade that is moved by a lever inside the car, keeping the driver warm and the window clear. In 1903 she received a patent for the novel device, but when she tried to sell it in 1905 nobody was interested.
It was still three years before the Ford Model T and other automobiles for the masses were introduced. However, by 1916 windshield wipers would become regular equipment on all cars. In England a patent for wipers was registered in 1911 by Gladstone Adams although Mills Munitions of Birmingham also claim to have patented the invention first. Automatic electric wipers eventually followed, using rollers rather than blades. These were invented by Charlotte Bridgwood in 1917, and these had become standard in cars by the early 1920s. Windshield wipers usually work in conjunction with a windshield washer that operates using a pump dispensing liquid detergent and water.
Robert Kearns invented and patented intermittent windshield wipers in 1969. He took his idea to the car companies, who showed no interest but then installed similar wipers in their vehicles. Kearns took Ford and Chrysler to court and won. Rain-sensing wipers were developed in the late twentieth century, and hence we don't even have to switch the wipers on these days.
