Diana Darby ** "I V" ** Intravenous

A History of Windshield Wipers

My driver’s side windshield wiper stopped working this morning.
Of course this had to happen while it was raining,
and of course it had to be on the driver’s side.
It is moments like this that I remember
I am driving an eighteen-year-old car.
I drove down Highway 70
squinting through the raindrops,
hoping I wouldn’t hit anyone
or be stopped by a cop
for some safety violation.
I looked at the green trees,
and the distant Nashville skyline,
and wondered who invented windshield wipers.
How did they come up with the idea?
Did the original cars have wipers?
Did they even have windshields?
I thought about the drivers back then,
getting pelted with cicadas as they flew down country roads,
fighting off rain and snow,
and marveling at their new horseless carriages.
I thought about white lace dresses covered in mud
and Easter hats being blown off
only to be left behind in yellow corn fields.
I thought about the inventors
locked away in their garages,
experimenting with steel and rubber
trying to come up with something that wiped glass clean.
When I got home,
I grabbed my Encyclopedia to see who actually invented the windshield wiper.
Finding nothing,
I looked online.
Turns out, a woman invented the first windshield wiper.
Mary Anderson was given a patent in 1903
for a manually operated windshield wiper.
She saw drivers in New York sticking their heads out of their windows
struggling to see.
Then she did something about it.
In 1916 the windshield wiper became standard equipment.
In the 20’s another woman, Charlotte Bridgwood,
created an electronically powered wiper.
Now we take them for granted,
except when they stop working.
Bless you, Mary.
Bless you.