Leave it to a woman to help people see clearly.
Inspiration struck Alabama native Mary Anderson on a visit to New York City in 1902. Traveling through the wet, snowy city by streetcar, she noticed how often the driver stopped, got out, and cleared the windshield so he could see ahead of him. As she sat there, she began sketching a possible solution. In 1903 she was granted a 17-year patent for her windshield wiper invention.
The device consisted of a rubber blade on the outside of the windshield connected to a wooden lever inside the car that moved the blade back and forth as needed. It was the first effective device for clearing windows to be approved.
Anderson attempted to sell her patent to a variety of North American companies and was soundly rejected. Those corporations advised her that there was no commercial merit to her venture. Others critical of the idea thought they would prove to distract the driver, causing accidents. Even manufacturing companies involved in the emerging automobile industry had no interest. Many suspect her gender played a part in her being easily dismissed by the corporate world.
Her patent expired in 1920 and by 1922 Cadillac decided her streetcar idea would work on their automobiles, so they began installing them on all models. Other car companies quickly followed suit, acknowledging the safety benefit to such a device. Anderson never received compensation for her idea, but lived to see her idea become standard on all cars.
Born at the start of the Civil War Reconstruction era, Anderson was a real estate developer in Alabama before moving to California to operate a cattle ranch and vineyard. Never married, she died in 1953 at 87. In 2011 she was inducted into the International Inventors Hall of Fame.
What a thinker, Mary!