Some inventions look so simple and familiar that it is already impossible to imagine reality without them. So, few people can believe that once there were no wipers on the windshields of cars. It wasn't until 1913 that a mechanical windshield wiper became standard.
The creator of the first working prototype of wipers is considered to be Mary Anderson, an American realtor, wine grower and inventor. She is best known as the creator of cleaning wipers. automotive glass. Anderson was born in Green County, Alabama, USA in 1866. Three years later, Mary with her widowed mother and sister moved, without leaving Alabama, to the city of Birmingham. And in the winter of 1903 she visited New York.
One frosty day she had to take a ride in a trolley bus. Mary noticed that the driver had to drive the trolley bus with open window, despite the biting frost and biting wind - otherwise it was difficult to maintain a normal view due to the falling snow. Back in Alabama, Anderson designed a windshield wiper. With the help of a local company, Mary produced a prototype of the developed device; in 1903, she received a patent for her invention (for a period of 17 years).
The design of the Anderson wiper is simple - it is a lever inside the cabin, with which it was possible to control a rubber bar attached to the outside. With a lever, the driver moved the wiper on the glass, erasing the adhering snow. The bar-mounted weight made cleaning particularly efficient.
Similar devices were invented before Anderson, but Mary became the first who managed to create something really convenient and practical. In 1905, she tried to sell her patent to a well-known Canadian company, but she was refused - the entrepreneurs felt that the likely income did not cover the difficulties associated with production. Popularity car wipers found only 10 years after the invention.
And in 1917, another American, Charlotte Bridgwood, head of the Bridgwood Manufacturing Company of New York, invented and, of course, patented the electric roller wiper. It also took the Americans 10 years to accept this idea. Although the first working models went on sale as early as 1920, automobile conservatives believed that the constant swinging of the wipers in front of their eyes would distract the driver from the road.
Then windshield wipers were improved many times. In 1962, Detroit resident and Ford owner Robert Kearns came up with the idea to create car wipers that mimic the movement of human eyelids. And in 1964, he patented a windscreen wiper with intermittent (blinking) operation.
Mechanical wipers
Until 1903, precipitation caused motorists a lot of trouble. To improve visibility, drivers had to stop and manually wipe the windows. This problem was solved by a woman - a young American Mary Anderson. It is to her that the invention of windshield wipers for cars is attributed.
The idea to make life easier for motorists came to Mary while traveling from Alabama to New York. It snowed and rained all the way. Mary Anderson saw drivers constantly stop, open the windows of their cars and removing snow from windshield. Mary decided that this process could be improved and began to design a windshield wiper.
Got a device with rotating handle and rubber roller. The first windshield wipers had a lever that allowed them to be operated from inside the car. With the help of a lever, a pressure device with an elastic band described an arc on the glass, removing raindrops, snow flakes from the glass and returned to its original position.
Mary Anderson received a patent for her invention in 1903. Similar devices have been developed before, but Mary ended up with a device that actually works. In addition, its windshield wipers were easily removed.
At the beginning of the last century, cars were not yet very popular (Henry Ford did not create his famous car until 1908), so many scoffed at Anderson's idea. Skeptics believed that the movement of the brushes would distract drivers. However, by 1913, thousands of Americans had own cars, A mechanical wipers(no matter how ridiculous it may sound now) became standard equipment.
Automatic windshield wipers
The automatic windshield wiper was invented by another woman inventor, Charlotte Bridgwood. She headed the Bridgwood Manufacturing Company of New York. In 1917, Charlotte Bridgwood patented an electric roller windshield wiper called the Storm Windshield Cleaner.
The design of the brushes has not changed much since its inception. The main component of the windshield wiper is a rubber element. Special differences different wipers- in the composition of rubber and the quality of the material. Now they do not produce windshield wipers from pure rubber, as it freezes in the cold in winter, and in summer it heats up in the sun to 70-80 degrees, from which the rubber bursts or dries out. In addition, manufacturers of glass cleaning fluids often do not take into account the reactivity to rubber. Therefore, the composition of modern wipers includes silicone, Teflon, graphite, natural rubber.
Video of the process of creating frame wipers
For quality brush important recipe and manufacturing technology. If you look closely at the cleaning element, it is easy to see what a complex structure it has.
Firstly, this is a complex cross-sectional profile, while the more expensive and better the brush, the more complex the rubber profile. Modern cleaning elements also have a complex internal structure. The working part of the "gum" is made of hard and wear resistant rubber or a special silicone-graphite mixture. The inflection point is made of elastic and soft silicone, since the working part bends when moving up and down. The fastening is made of durable heat-resistant rubber. Then everything is sintered into a single whole.
The curvature of the pressure plate at the wipers allows the wiper element to fit tightly and evenly to the entire surface of the glass. However, it should be noted that the windshield wiper sometimes does not fully adhere to the glass surface and, especially in the place of maximum bending of the glass.
, Vladimir Maslakov , Elena Shulman , more Composer Aaron Zigman Editing Jill Savitt DOP Dante Spinotti Writers Philip Railsback , John Seabrook Art Hugo Lutsyk-Vykhovsky, Patrick Banister , Luis Sequeira , more
Do you know that
- Kearns received many offers from Hollywood to film his story, but refused everyone, fearing that it might be distorted. In the end, the inventor gave in under the pressure of Mark Abraham and provided him with all the materials. The film took 9 years to make.
- Unlike what is shown in the film, Kearns was represented by professional lawyers during the Ford trial.
- Unlike what is shown in the film, Kearns' main desire was not a public apology from Ford, but exclusive rights to manufacture his invention.
- To date, more than 145 million vehicles have Kearns' invention installed.
- The director asked lead actor Greg Kinnear to gain weight because he didn't look like a college professor with 6 kids.
More facts (+2)
Mistakes in the movie
- The model of the bus that the hero takes to get to Washington did not exist in the 1960s.
- When the Kearns family is celebrating his invention at home, a white car modern model.
- The aquarium in which Kearns demonstrates his invention to the family had not yet been invented at the time.
- In the scene where Dr. Kearns is talking to his grown-up son Dennis in a coffee shop, the newspaper lying on the table constantly changes its location.
- The uniform worn by Maryland police officers was not invented until the 1990s.
More bugs (+2)
Plot
Beware, the text may contain spoilers!
The plot of the film is based on real events that took place in the United States in the late 60s. The protagonist of the story is the talented inventor Robert Kearns. Since childhood, he was fond of engineering, loved to build, make or improve something already in existing models. Therefore, when the question arose about choosing a university and a profession, Kearns did not even doubt it. After receiving a degree from the University of Detroit, he soon became a teacher and enthusiastically told students about all the inventions that inspired him. Kearns taught them to think critically and not to take even the most hyped novelties for perfection. An extraordinary mind, energy and sincere passion for his work made Kearns a real star at the university. It was impossible to resist his charm, and neither could his future wife, Phyllis. Gentle, romantic, but at the same time decisive, she became for Robert perfect couple and supported him in all his endeavors. Soon the couple had two beautiful children, the hero received a promotion at the university, and life seemed like a fairy tale. But all this time, Kearns did not abandon his favorite pastime. One fine day, he realized that one of the systems in his wife's car was not working perfectly and was causing her problems while driving. When it rains, the car wipers have to be turned on manually, and they have only one mode, which is not suitable for different rain intensity. Kearns decided to improve on this system and create electronic wipers that turn on automatically and choose the appropriate mode according to the intensity of the rain. The Kearns family is testing this invention and is absolutely delighted. Phyllis assures her husband that he has created a real masterpiece that can make them a fortune.
Inspired by the words of his wife, Kearns presents his invention to the three largest automobile corporations: “ General Motors”, “Ford” and “Chrysler”. At first, Ford is interested in the invention of Kearns, but at the last moment refuses him. A few months later, the hero sees that his idea was stolen. With nothing but the truth behind him, Kearns begins a years-long lawsuit against the auto industry giant.
To date wiper or " wipers", is an indispensable attribute of almost all types motor technology. It is installed on planes, trains, water transport and, of course, cars. With its help carry out mechanical cleaning of survey glasses from a rain, snow, dust and dirt.
However, at the beginning of the 20th century, rain, mud or snow caused a lot of trouble for motorists. After all, the first cars did not have windshield wipers. I had to constantly stop the car and manually wipe the windows. Various means have been proposed for this. For a long time The most common way to clean the windshield was to use a special scraper with a rubber plate, which the driver could use to clean the glass from his seat. Now it is obvious that this method is not the most successful. Although many at the beginning of the twentieth century thought otherwise.
Despite this, in 1903, a young American, Mary Anderson, patented windshield wipers. The idea came to Mary while traveling from Alabama to New York. Sitting on a tram on a frosty day, she noted that the driver was driving with the front windows open due to the difficulty of maintaining Windshield clean in the snow. When she returned to Alabama, she hired a designer and a local company to produce a working model. Her device consisted of a rubber scraper, special levers and a return spring, allowing you to control the scraper from the car. With the help of a lever, a pressure device with an elastic band described an arc on the glass, removing raindrops, snow flakes from the glass and returned to its original position. Similar devices have been proposed before, but Mary Anderson succeeded in creating the first truly effective device. However, when she tried to sell her invention to a Canadian company, she was refused, saying that such a device would not be commercially successful.
However, after a little over 10 years, the windshield wiper has become standard equipment on the car.
In the future, the development of windshield wipers went very rapidly and this concerned, first of all, the search for the optimal brush drive and the improvement of its controls. So, for example, in the 1910s of the twentieth century, the first windshield wipers with a vacuum drive from intake manifold. But this type of automatic drive had significant disadvantage: reposition throttle valve significantly influenced the speed of the "wipers" and with an increase in engine speed, the speed of the "wipers" noticeably decreased.
IN different time the cars used hydraulic, vacuum, pneumatic type of drive.
The wiper blades themselves changed very slowly and this concerned mainly the profile of the rubber band.
By the mid-1940s, a new serious problem. Thanks to the efforts of automotive designers, the profile of the windshield has changed - the glasses have become convex. The issue of cleaning such glasses was tried to be solved by using small brushes, reducing the area of the surface to be cleaned. After all, on convex glass you can find suitable areas with minimal curvature and clean them with a small straight brush. This decision made it possible to remove the acuteness of the problem, but could not become the main one, as it led to a significant decrease in the visibility zone, and hence safety.
The search began for an idea to ensure a snug fit of the rubber band to the surface of the convex windshield. In the middle of the 50s of the XX century, a variant of the windshield wiper blade frame, which is now familiar and further referred to as "traditional" or "frame", was proposed, consisting of the system " rocker arms» and one or two elastic plates located inside the rubber band. After numerous improvements, it became the main one and now such a frame consists of 3-7 "rocker arms", creates 4-8 points of pressing the tape to the glass and is used very widely.
IN further development car windshield wipers two directions can be distinguished.
First -, This improvement most rubber band contacting the glass and mechanically cleaning it. For many years, the main material used for its production was rubber, made from natural rubber. However, due to the fact that the rubber cracks in the cold, the operating conditions of different sections of the belt differ from each other, optimal performance these plots are also different, firm Denso In the late 1980s, it was proposed to use a two-layer, fully or partially synthetic, rubber with a working surface layer subjected to a special chemical treatment. This idea was quickly picked up and developed by other market participants. In the mid 1990s. Bosch started production two-component tapes ( trademark twin), consisting of two types of synthetic rubber. Soft rubber base provides a uniform, silent brush stroke, and a hard working surface with a micro-edge ensures high-quality glass cleaning. A little later, to further strengthen the rigidity of the blade and improve it anti-friction properties, Bosch began to cover work surface blades special composition based on powdered graphite. Such rubber band are equipped, for example, frameless Bosch Aerotwin.
Valeo also did not stand aside from innovations and began to use in some of its brushes three-component composition of tapes, for example, frameless Valeo Silencio X-TRM, in which the blade is made of natural rubber, the upper part is made of softer synthetic rubber, and the entire band is covered with a special water-repellent protective sheath. This development allows in its own way to take into account the difference in the characteristics of the operation of various sections of the belt and improve the characteristics of the brush, especially in difficult weather conditions.
Second the most important direction in the improvement of car wipers is frame improvement. It is necessary to find a way to firmly and evenly press the brush against the glass during its movement. After all, what more sizes glass and the more complex the curvature of its profile, the more difficult it is to do it qualitatively along the entire length of the brush using a traditional frame. To do this, it is necessary to increase the number of levels and the total number of “rocker arms” in the frame, which leads to an increase in the height and mass of the brushes, worsens the visibility and quality of cleaning, increases aerodynamic noise and the risk of breakage of all elements of the wiper, and fit such huge brushes into the design modern cars not easy.
The first ideas to replace traditional wipers with more elegant and efficient ones began to appear in the late 80s of the twentieth century. Much later, when it became clear that the new brushes have good prospects and can be successfully used where traditional wipers do not do their job, they came up with names that play on their main difference - the lack of a “rocker arm” system. They began to be called "frameless", "reinforcementless", "flat".
The frameless brush is a curved spring steel element placed inside the rubber band - brushes and has a profile that is calculated for the profile of a particular windshield. The working curvature of the brush must be maintained throughout its service life, regardless of dynamically changing loads and temperatures. environment. This seemingly simple plate is in fact a very high-tech product and rightfully is, along with a rubber band, the most important secret high quality brushes.
Thanks to the pre-calculated curvature of the brush profile, it became possible to provide a much more uniform and precise pressing of the tape to the glass and better cleaning. As a rule, such brushes have an integrated spoiler, which, along with their reduced height, allows you to further improve the cleaning quality on high speeds and reduce aerodynamic noise. The absence of mating movable elements of the frame in the design of the brush allows you not to worry about the deterioration in the quality of glass cleaning in winter due to freezing of water in the hinges and sharp decline their mobility. reduced height frameless brush favorably affects visibility.
However, progress does not stand still, and this decision soon revealed its shortcomings. And now on many new cars, especially Japanese manufacturers a new type of wiper blades appeared. So called "hybrid" wiper blades. The pioneer once again was the company Denso. These brushes combine the advantages of both "frame" and "frameless" technologies. The wiper has a standard hinge inside the wiper to ensure a perfect fit on any glass profile, while the tough graphite-coated rubber blade provides a softer and more effective cleaning. The entire structure of the brush is completely hidden in the body, which prevents water from freezing in the hinges. 
When it comes to inventions that turned the world upside down, they most often sound. Few people remember the improvements that women later made to them. But in vain. It's scary to think what all motorists, both men and women, would do at today's speeds and without windshield wipers.
The weather that day was terrible. The sidewalks were covered with a layer of snow and ice, passers-by wrapped themselves in coats and pulled their heads into their shoulders. Wishing to admire the beauties of New York and hide from the piercing cold, Mary Anderson, who arrived from the city of Birmingham, boarded a tram.
It was 1902. She remembered this trip for the rest of her life, but not because of the beautiful views. Then Mary came up with the world's first windshield wipers. The reason was simple - she felt sorry for the driver, who could not see anything. Mary Anderson's invention has not only helped all drivers, it has saved countless lives.
The problem of poor visibility in inclement weather has long occupied the minds of many of the best engineers who have proposed their solution. Windshield began to be made composite, from several parts. When the driver could not see anything due to rain or snow, he could open the center section and look into the resulting hole.
Unfortunately, there was no sense from this improvement. Or was, but not enough. Mary watched with sympathy as the driver tried to see anything. When he opened the central section, an icy wind immediately rushed into the cabin, bringing with it puffs of wet snow.
Before windshield wipers became widespread, drivers rubbed pieces of carrots or onions on their windshields in the hope that the resulting oily film would repel water a little.
“Why haven’t they come up with such a thing that would remove snow from glass?” Mary kept asking people around.
“We tried, and more than once,” they answered her. - This is impossible".
What nonsense, thought Mary and began to write something quickly in a notebook. You can also make a lever inside, and attach a hinged bar to it outside that will remove snow. It's so simple!
Returning home to Birmingham, Mary carefully studied her sketches. She worked on them a little more - complicated the design, added some details. Finally, when the result completely satisfied her, she took the drawing to a small manufacturing company, right there in Birmingham, and ordered a model of her invention. And then she filed for a patent.
“My invention is intended to improve windshield wipers and consists of a circularly moving bar on a hinge, which is actuated by a handle inside the cab,” Mary wrote in the comments to the patent.
In other words, inside is a lever, outside is a bar. Mary's wipers consisted of wooden slats and bits of rubber. According to her idea, in good weather, the wipers could be removed so that they did not block the driver's view. One of the most important elements The design had a counterweight added later.
The counterweight was used, as Mary wrote, "to create the same pressure on the glass throughout the area covered by my improved windshield wiper."
In other words, Mary's device was cleaning snow off the glass. In 1903, she was granted a patent for a windshield wiper, or wipers. After receiving documents for her invention, she offered the rights to it to a large Canadian company. The company showed no interest. After reviewing the proposal, the specialists decided that the invention had no - or almost no - commercial value. It's just that no one will buy it. However, they have graciously agreed to consider any other "useful patents" she has, if any.
Mary slipped the patent into the back drawer of her desk. So he lay there until his term expired. A few years later, someone else revived Mary's idea, patented it, sold it, and made a lot of money. Now, even in the most inclement weather, the driver sees the road clearly, which means that the invention saves more and more lives every day. And in modern world high technology wipers are still one of the most important devices that ensure the safety of driving. And tourists can explore the sights of the city even in the snow, even in the rain, even in the snow and rain.
