The world of wiper blade was initiated by a lone woman who on observing the trams on the streets of New York had a single brain wave which would revolutionise transport every where. Her simple but effective design would later go on to cover most of the planet wherever vehicles were so you would also discover wiper blade. This is the background of Mary Anderson and her remarkable gift to the world the humble but ultimately necessary invention the wiper blade in all its many forms. This history harks all the way back to nineteen hundred and two where upon an eagle eyed Ms Anderson remarked at how the tram drivers placed their hands out of the window when it rained in order to clear the wind screen. Despite being judged by all and sundry and being belittled for being a female inventor the marvellous Ms Anderson soon endeavoured to create a device which would make it possible to drive in inclement weather conditions, this apparatus would later be called the wiper blade.
The engineers of the day hadn’t had much success and so far had come up with a partial solution. The wind screen had no wiper blades but instead broke down the middle and upon opening it was found that the snow would fall off. Many drivers tried to open the window in the middle of driving and many received a cold blast to the face and usually got fairly wet in the process. Some drivers even attempted to ward off water by placing grease, onions and vegetable oil onto the viewing panel. So it was up to the erstwhile Ms Anderson to come up with a better idea despite her detractors. She had the idea to put a lever into the cab which the driver could turn on to actuate the wiper blades and hence stay inside. When she got back to her native town she soon drew up plans to construct her device and hired a manufacturing company to build a prototype of the very initial wiper blades. The new wiper blades were made from rubber and leather and could be taken away in fine weather climates.
She soon was to patent her new wipers device and in short order contacted an enormous manufacturing company offering her design. The business however had other ideas and stated that the device in question or the wipers had little if any commercial value and were very doubtful that such an obscure thing would in fact sell at all. Unfortunately for her she was never to appropriately profit from her designs and once the patent exhausted other vultures descended upon the idea with gusto. By around nineteen twelve the wipers design had been refined into something similar to today’s standards and would soon be fitted to every model Ford produced in the continental United States of America. The next step in there evolution came a bit later when the first automatic wipers were designed and made by another woman and although not being a commercial hit they would form the blueprint of wipers science for many years to come.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!