Do It Yourself

Each day I get into my car, turn on the engine, and drive off. If it is a warm day, I choose to turn on the air conditioning or retract my convertible roof. On cold days I set the heat system, to ensure I am comfy as I am driving. When it is raining, snowing or foggy I use my Wiper blades to clear the windshield.

I do not as a rule think of how these things evolved for my comfort, I just assume that vehicles have these facilities to improve my driving experience. However, as winter nears, it caused me to reflect upon the Windscreen wipers and what a fantastic invention they are.

I have looked for information on this matter and established that in 1903, when the first windscreens were added to cars, an inventor by the name of J H Apjohn came up with the concept of Windscreen wipers in the form of brushes which swept up and down the windscreen to clear it. I imagine that the brushes probably caused quite a few scuffs to the windshield, so in 1905, when the American inventor, Mary Anderson, patented the swinging arm style of windscreen wiper, with a rubber blade, this must have been keenly accepted by the motor industry.

These early Windscreen wipers required the driver to move a lever in the vehicle to control the wipers, so the next large step was towards electric Windscreen wipers. A dentist from Hawaii, Dr Ormand Wall, invented the electric wipers in 1917, some 12 years after Mary Anderson’s first Wiper Blades were added to motor vehicles.

All Windscreen wipers had rubber blades until relatively recently. The problems found with these were that due to changes in temperature, summer heat, frost in winter, the rubber rotted and the blades required replacement in a comparatively short period of time.

Silicone wiper blades are now also offered and these are less vulnerable to temperature variations than their rubber forerunners. Though the Silicone wiper blades are slightly more dear than the rubber Windscreen wipers, they often come with a guarantee to not rot or split, as occurs with the rubber wipers, and also allege to be able to follow the contours of the windscreen better, giving a cleaner sweep.

We ask a lot from these fantastic little inventions. I expect to press or pull or twist at a stick on my steering wheel and get an instant result from the Wiper blades. They are expected to clean dust and flies from my windscreen in the summer. When the roads are dirty, I want the dirt to be removed from my windscreen straight away, to give me good vision. If it is icy early in the morning, I switch on the heater and impatiently turn the Windscreen wipers on to clear the windscreen more rapidly. In winter the heavy snow is shown no mercy.

Because of the above I give thanks to the ingenious Mary Anderson, the inventor of Windscreen wipers.I also marvel at the type of mind that could come up with such an invention out of just being faced with a problem. It’s a lesson to us all when we’re facing adversity.