In this week’s Women in STEM Series, we show that you don’t need a graduate degree in science or engineering to be an inventor! Mary Anderson, inventor of the windshield wiper, proves that common sense and creativity are just as important as formal education.
Mary Anderson was born in post-Civil War Alabama in 1866, long before women went to college or even drove cars. In 1902, she was on a trip to New York City and was riding a trolley car. She noticed that the driver couldn’t keep the windshield clear during a snow storm and had to stop the trolley to manually clean it off.
She came up with an idea for a hand operated device with a blade on the outside of the windshield and a lever inside the car that the driver could control from the seat. The lever had a counterweight to keep the blade in contact with the windshield. She hired a designer and a local company to manufacture a prototype. In 1903 she applied for and was granted a patent for her “window cleaning device.” In 2011, over 50 years after her death, she was inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame.
Without any formal training in mechanics or engineering, Mary Anderson recognized a problem and came up with a creative solution. She believed in her idea and proved that ANYONE can be an inventor!