Early invention and use of windshiled wipers

I just found out that a very crucial part of a car was invented by a women, and that in a time when the motoring industry primarily targeted the male driver and focused on speed, revs, engine size, rims and exhaust pipes. Women were viewed as too timid and fragile to participate in strenuous activity or operate complex machinery. 

While she was in a trolley car  in New York City in the winter of 1903 , Mary Anderson observed that the motorman drove with his front window open due to difficulty of keeping the windshiled clear of falling sleet. After that visit when she went back to Alabama, she hired a designer to make  a hand operated device that would keep the windshield clear, and had a local company produce a working model.

In 1903 she was granted a 17-year patent for a windshield wipe. The device consisited of a lever with a rubber blade and could be operated from inside a vehicle to cause the spring-loaded arm to move back and forth across the windshield. Similar devices had been made earlier but Anderson's was the first to be effective, since before that, people smeared a mixture of onions and carrots on windshields to repel water.

The roads become wet, slick and slipper during rain, but the idea that you cannot see in front of you is reason to be concerned. As your visibility begins to be affected, your windshield wipers have to be engaged and turned up to higher speed.

Windshiled wipers are important and are the easiest to overlook when it comes to car safety. It is said that chances of getting involved in a accident automatically increase when it rains. So by overlooking what you can control, you are putting your life in danger. 

The first step in increasing safety is to regularly clean the windshield and the wipers. Although overtime and under certain conditions those windshield wipers will become less effective you can always return your windshield wipers to an earlier state of efficiency. Invest in a cleaning solvent that contains ingredients specifically designed to remove grease and silicone that has accumulated on the windshield.


Windshield wipers are the definitive security features of a vehicle and it is very important that every vehicle has these.