Mary
Anderson was born in 1866 in Greene Country, Alabama. Her family included her
sister and her widowed mother. The three of them built and managed an apartment
complex in Alabama. She ended up moving to Fresno, California but found herself
at home again to help take care of her sick aunt. She then decided to take a
trip to New York City with her friends. She died at the age of 87 in 1953 in
Monteagle, Tennessee. She managed the apartments up until her death.
Her idea
came to her on a trip to New York City with her friends. She was riding in a
street car and kept seeing drivers, including hers, having to pull over, stop
and wipe all of the precipitation off of the windshields. Mary thought that
this wasn’t right. She was inspired to change all of the stopping and wiping
and then going. She started thinking on how she could stop it. Then she created
a device that could wipe off the precipitation. A wood and rubber blade
operated by a crank on the inside of the car.
Other
designs were made before hers but she improved them to the point where they
actually worked. She applied for a patent in 1904. She tried selling the rights
to a Canadian car company. They told her that they weren’t commercial enough
and rejected. Her patent seemed worthless since cars weren’t for everyone. Only
the upper class citizens and they had drivers for their cars.
After her
patent expired the wipers got really big. Almost every car had them. And they
all used her design. Then all cars had to have wipers. If not, you got in trouble.
So her design did become big but after her patent expired so she didn’t make
any prophet on it. She settled down in Greene Country, Alabama with some trips
to her vacation home in Tennessee. She managed he mothers apartments for the
rest of her life until her death at age 87 in her vacation home.
work cited
. "Mary Anderson." www.women-inventors.com. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 6 Feb 2013.
mary , bellis. "Mary Anderson." about.com. about,
n.d. Web. 6 Feb 2013.
"Mary Anderson." mit.edu. inventor archive, n.d.
Web. 6 Feb 2013.
