Mary Anderson (inventor)

Mary Anderson was born in Burton Hill Plantation, Greene County, Alabama, at the start of Reconstruction in 1866. Her parents are John C. and Rebecca Anderson. Anderson was one of at least two daughters. The other daughter was Fannie who remained close to Anderson all her life. Their father died in 1870, and the young family was able to live on the proceeds of John’s estate. In 1889 she moved with her widowed mother and sister to the booming town of Birmingham, Alabama. Anderson’s education is unknown, she was never married and didn’t have any children.[4][5]

In Birmingham, Anderson became a real estate developer soon after settling and built the Fairmont Apartments on Highland Avenue. In 1893, Anderson left Birmingham to operate a cattle ranch and vineyard in Fresno, California . In 1898, she returned to Birmingham to help care for an ailing aunt. Anderson and her aunt moved into the Fairmont Apartments with Anderson’s mother, her sister Fannie, and Fannie’s husband G. P. Thornthon. Anderson’s ailing aunt brought a trunk with her that contained a collection of gold and jewelry. From that time forward, Anderson’s family lived comfortably.[5]

In a visit to New York City in the winter of 1903, in a trolley car on a frosty day, Anderson observed that the trolley car driver struggled to see past the windows because of the falling sleet.[6] The trolley car’s front window was designed for bad-weather visibility; however, its multi-pane windshield system worked very poorly.[7] Therefore, to clear the sights, the driver needed to open the window, lean out of the vehicle, or to stop the car to go outside in order to wipe the windscreen with his hands. Anderson, who was not an engineer, but an entrepreneur, identified the problem and its opportunity. She envisioned a windshield wiper blade that could be operated from the inside by the trolley driver.[8] At that time, it rarely occurred to anyone else to eliminate the problem. It was something drivers simply accepted and dealt with.

When she returned to Alabama she hired a designer for a hand-operated device to keep a windshield clear and had a local company produce a working model. She applied for, and in 1903 was granted, a 17-year patent for a windshield wiper.[1] The patent application was filed on June 18, 1903. On November 10, 1903, the United States Patent Office awarded Anderson patent number 743,801 for her Window Cleaning device.[9]

Her device consisted of a lever inside the vehicle that controlled a rubber blade on the outside of the windshield. The lever could be operated to cause the spring-loaded arm to move back and forth across the windshield. A counterweight was used to ensure contact between the wiper and the window.[10][11] The device could be easily removed if desired after the winter was over.[12] Similar devices had been made earlier, but Anderson's was the first windshield clearing device to be effective. Anderson’s simple mechanism and basic design have remained much the same, but today’s windscreen wipers’ significant difference is that Anderson’s wipers could have been removed when not needed.[11]

In 1903, when Anderson applied for the patent, cars were not very popular. Henry Ford’s Model A automobile had not even been manufactured yet.[11] Therefore, when Anderson tried to sell the rights to her invention through a noted Canadian firm of Dinning and Eckenstein in 1905, they rejected her application. They argued, "we do not consider it to be of such commercial value as would warrant our undertaking its sale." Furthermore, many could not see the value of her invention and stressed the risk that the driver would be distracted by operating the device and the moving wipers.

After the patent expired in 1920 and the automobile manufacturing business grew exponentially, windshield wipers using Anderson's basic design became standard equipment. In 1922, Cadillac became the first car manufacturer to adopt them as standard equipment.[10]

In 1922, driving became more popular and there was nothing yet on personal operated vehicles to clean their windshield. Cadillac thought they should take Anderson's invention on street cars and apply it to their own motor operated vehicles. So they did, Cadillac began to put windshield wipers on their personal vehicles as a standard.

In 1917, Charlotte Bridgewood patented the “electric storm windshield cleaner,” the first automatic wiper system that used rollers instead of blades.[13][14] Like Anderson, Bridgewood never made any money from her invention.[iii] Sara-Scott Wingo, rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Richmond, Va., and Anderson’s great-great niece, suspects that Anderson’s invention never went anywhere because Anderson was an independent woman. Wingo said in an interview with NPR News, “She didn't have a father. She didn't have a husband. And the world was kind of run by men back then.”[15]

By the 1920s, Anderson’s brother-in-law had died, and Anderson was again living in the Fairmont Apartments in Birmingham with her sister Fannie and her mother.[i] She continued to manage the Fairmont Apartments until her death at the age of 87. At the time of her death, she was the oldest member of South Highland Presbyterian Church.[5] She died at her summer home in Monteagle, Tennessee. Her funeral was conducted by Dr. Frank A Mathes at South Highland and she was buried at Elmwood Cemetery.[1]

Anderson's invention of the windshield wiper is mentioned in Season 17, Episode 19: "Girls Just Want to Have Sums," of the cartoon The Simpsons, during a debate between Marge Simpson and her husband and son, Homer and Bart, about gender equality:

Marge: "Well, a woman also invented the windshield wiper!"

Homer: "Which goes great with another male invention, the car!"[16]

Anderson's windshield wiper invention is also briefly mentioned on the British panel/quiz show; QI (Quite Interesting); Season 10, Episode 16 - "Just the Job".

"When was the windshield wiper invented?" was the Weather Channel "Question of the Day" for July 6, 2016.

NPR's Morning Edition produced a profile, including an interview with her great-great-niece into her legacy and societal context on July 25, 2017. [15]

Mary Anderson’s legacy, the windshield wipers, was adapted for automotive use and became a car’s standard equipment when Cadillac began installing them in 1922. However, Anderson did not receive any money for her invention. In 2011, she was inducted into the International Inventors Hall of Fame, receiving some credit she truly deserved.[17]

• Mary Anderson entry on About.com
• Famous Women Inventors