Modest Windscreen Wiper blades and how they Developed With the Passing of Time
Every day I climb into my car, switch on the engine, and drive away. If it is a hot day, I choose to switch on the air conditioning or retract my convertible roof. On cold days I adjust the heat system, to be certain I am comfy as I am driving. When it is raining, snowing or foggy I utilise my Wiper blades to clear the windshield.
I do not normally think of how these things developed for my comfort, I just assume that vehicles have these features to enhance my driving experience. However, as winter approaches, it caused me to reflect upon the Windscreen wipers and what a amazing invention they are.
I have searched for information on this area and found that in 1903, when the first windshields were added to automobiles, an inventor by the name of J H Apjohn came up with the idea of Windscreen wipers in the form of brushes which swept up and down the windscreen to clean it. I would think that the brushes almost certainly caused quite a few scratches 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 enthusiastically accepted by the automotive industry.
These early Windscreen wipers called for the user to move a lever in the vehicle to control the wipers, so the next large move 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 vehicles.
All Windscreen wipers had rubber blades until relatively recently. The troubles encountered with these
Silicone wiper blades are now also offered and these are less vulnerable to temperature changes than their rubber predecessors. Even though the Silicone wiper blades are somewhat more costly than the rubber Windscreen wipers, they frequently come with a guarantee to not rot or crack, as happens with the rubber wipers, and also allege to be able to follow the contours of the windscreen better, giving a more clean sweep.
We ask a lot from these amazing little inventions. I expect to press or pull or twist at a stick on my driving wheel and get an instant effect from the Wiper blades. They are required to clean dirt and flies from my windscreen in the summer. When the roads are filthy, I need the mud to be cleared from my window immediately, to give me good vision. If it is icy early in the day, I turn on the heater and impatiently switch the Windscreen wipers on to clean the windscreen quickly. In winter the heavy snow is shown short shrift.
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.
