Inventor of the Windshield Wiper - Mary Anderson

When it comes to technology in cars today, we tend to think of auto assist features, big screens on the dashboard, and even autonomous driving. But more than a century ago, a woman came up with her own technology to make one of the greatest contributions in transportation history. Her unique contribution made driving an automobile much safer.

Their contributions made the world a better place. This is women who made a difference. More than a century ago, transportation was being transformed. The Wright Brothers were trying to get humans off the ground, and Henry Ford was perfecting the mass production of automobiles. The world was about to be transformed in ways people could not imagine, as humans would be able to travel faster and farther.

But with all great leaps forward, there were dangers. And there was one woman that would make a difference and make the world a safer place. And her timing was perfect. The story starts in 1866, when a little girl named Mary was born in Green County, Alabama, to her parents, John and Rebecca. Her father, unfortunately, would die when Mary was just four years old.

But the proceeds from his estate allowed the family to live comfortably. In 1889, Mary Her mother and her sister moved to the town of Birmingham, Alabama, a city established less than 20 years earlier. They went from rural green County, Alabama to a bustling town of innovation. Now the planners of Birmingham had envisioned a city that would be a great industrial center.

And when looking for a name, they looked to the great industrial hub of Birmingham in England. and chose that as the town's namesake. By the time Mary and her family arrived in Birmingham, the town was bustling with opportunity. Mary would be very successful and become both a rancher and a real estate developer.

She had a keen ability to analyze problems and she loved looking for solutions. And that trade in young Mary led to one of the greatest innovations in automobile transportation. Around the time Mary was 20, The automobile was invented in Europe by German inventor, Carl Benz. Now his automobile is considered the first practical car that actually went into production.

He was awarded a patent in 1866. Today, history regards Benz as the father of the car and the father of the entire automobile industry. And his contributions to the world cannot be understated as the car brought mobility, independence and conveniences never before realized in human history. It would also bring death.

As the first traffic fatality would happen just three years after Benz received his patent, the accident took the life of Mary Ward, who was an Irish scientist who died while being run over by a family member after she fell out of the car. Other dangers with automobiles soon became apparent, and one of them was rain.

You see, for those driving automobiles in those early days, there was not much to be done when encountering downpours that made it difficult or impossible to see. With visibility greatly diminished, the only thing you could do was slow down and pull over. In some cases, people would pull to the side of the road and manually scrape the water off the windshield.

It's hard to believe that even helped if it was still raining. But the harder it rained, the harder it was to see where you were going. Now this is where Mary comes in. She first noticed the problem while on a trip from Birmingham to New York. She saw the rain begin to slam against the windshield. And the driver of the trolley car she was traveling in make attempts to clear the water off with his hands.

It was in this moment inspiration struck. Mary knew exactly what cars of the day needed. A new technology to help drivers clear the water off the windshield so they could see while they were driving in the rain. Her invention allowed the drivers to wipe the windshield from within the car without having to hang out of the window and try to wipe away the water manually.

When she applied for a patent of her idea in June of 1903, she described it as a window cleaning device for electric cars and other vehicles. Her windshield wiper was operated by a lever from inside a vehicle. Now it was still a manual process, but it allowed the driver to stay inside the car and focus attention on the road.

The U. S. Patent Office reviewed Mary's filing and granted her a patent on November 10, 1903. Now, there were others who filed patents around the same idea, but history remembers the name Mary Anderson as the inventor of the first operational windshield wiper.

In 2011, she was inducted into the National Inventors Today, as cars drive at high speeds and rainstorms every day on interstates around the world, we can all thank Mary for her innovation and determination to make a difference by making driving much safer in the rain.

Mary Anderson was indeed one of the many women who made a difference.