Mary's Swinging Rubber Blade

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In the winter of 1903, a young woman named Mary Anderson took a trip from Alabama to New York City. During the trip, she had a hard time seeing the sights from the trolley car because of the harsh weather. Her driver had to keep both windows open and rub his hands over the windshield to remove the snow and ice. Up until this time, people did not believe that rain or snow on a windshield was a problem that could be solved. People accepted that if they chose to drive in bad weather (and who would?), they would have to intermittently stop and clean off the windshield.

Mary, being a bright entrepreneur, drew up plans for a device that could be activated from inside the car to clean the windshield. She was awarded a patent for a swinging arm with a rubber blade that could be operated by a lever from inside the car by the driver. The lever caused a spring-loaded arm to swing across the windshield and then back again to its original position. Several people had tried to create a device like this; however, Mary’s was the first to work.

In 1903, cars were still not very popular. Henry Ford’s Model T would not be manufactured until 1908, but by 1913, thousands of Americans were driving their own cars with— you guessed it—Mary's mechanical windshield wipers as standard equipment.

Now here we are, fast approaching 2025, and most of us have backup cameras, lane assist, lights that work automatically, a screen that allows us to talk and text through the car, and even a navigation system to tell us where to go or re-route us when trouble is up ahead.

All it took was someone to think outside the box—or trolley car in this case—to change everyone’s minds.

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