| American realtor, rancher, winegrower and inventor. Country: USA |
Mary Anderson was an American realtor, rancher, viticulturist, and inventor. She is best known as the creator of windshield wipers for cleaning car windshields.
Anderson was born in Greene County, Alabama in 1866. In 1889, she moved to Birmingham, Alabama with her widowed mother and sister. Birmingham was a rapidly developing city at the time. In 1893, Anderson relocated to Fresno, California where she managed a cattle ranch and vineyard until 1898.
During a visit to New York City in the winter of 1903, Anderson rode a trolleybus on a frosty day. She noticed that the driver had to keep the window open despite the freezing cold and biting wind in order to maintain a clear view due to falling snow. Upon returning to Alabama, Anderson developed a model for a manually operated device to clean windshields. She collaborated with a local company to produce a prototype of her invention, and in 1903, she was granted a patent for her windshield wiper design, which was valid for 17 years.
Anderson's initial windshield wipers were relatively simple, consisting of a lever inside the car that controlled a rubber blade attached to the outside. The driver could move the wiper across the windshield to remove snow, and the addition of a weight on the blade made the cleaning process even more effective. While similar devices had been invented before Anderson, she was the first to create something truly convenient and practical.
In 1905, Anderson attempted to sell her patent to a well-known Canadian company, but her offer was rejected as the potential profits were deemed insufficient given the production difficulties. In 1920, Anderson's patent expired, coinciding with the rapid growth of the automobile industry, and windshield wipers became a standard feature in cars. The first company to incorporate wipers into their car production line was Cadillac.
Anderson spent the rest of her life in Birmingham, occasionally traveling to other locations. At the time of her death in 1953 at the age of 87, she was the oldest member of her local Presbyterian church. She passed away at her summer home in Monteagle, Tennessee.