Windscreen wiper
Limpiaparabrisas
- Date
- 1903 · confidence high
- Place
- New York City, New York, United States
- Credited to
- Mary Anderson
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Anderson patented a "window cleaning device" operated by a lever from inside the vehicle, with a metal arm and a rubber blade that swept rain and snow off the windscreen: the first operational windscreen-wiper design.
Several inventors registered similar devices around the same time (George Capewell, 1896; Robert Douglass and John Apjohn, 1903; Gladstone Adams, 1911), but Anderson is popularly credited with the first genuinely operational design.
What it led to
- Gradual adoption as standard automobile equipment (1920s)
- Electric and intermittent windscreen wipers
- Safety standard for driving in rain