Mary Anderson (1866- 1953) was a real-estate developer, rancher, viticulturist and inventor of the windshield wiper blade. Anderson was granted her first patentfor an automatic car window cleaning device controlled inside the car, called the windshield wiper in November 1903.
Born on the Burton Hill Plantation in Greene County, Alabama at the start of Reconstruction in 1866, she moved with her widowed mother and sister to the booming town of Birmingham in 1889. She built the Fairmont Apartments on Highland Avenue soon after settling in. By 1893, Mary Anderson had moved west, to Fresno, California where, until 1898 she operated a cattle ranch and vineyard. She returned to Birmingham before 1902 and helped to care for an elderly aunt who had moved into their home with 17 large, heavy trunks which she kept in her room. After the aunt's death, the trunks revealed a large collection of gold and jewelry which established the family's financial situation. Mary used some of the money in the winter of 1902 to a make a trip to New York City with friends.
While sitting in a frosty New York trolley car, she noted the driver struggling to keep the windshield clear of sleety rain. He wavered between keeping the glass down, which let the weather into the car, and pausing every few minutes to run out and clear the slushy build-up. When she returned to Birmingham she sketched a design for a hand-operated device and had a local company produce a working model. She applied for, and in 1903 was granted, a 17-year patent for a windshield wiper. In 1905 she tried to sell the rights through a noted Canadian firm, but they rejected her application, saying "we do not consider it to be of such commercial value as would warrant our undertaking its sale." She did occasionally receive royalties, but they did not amount to much. After the patent expired in 1920 and the automobile manufacturing business grew exponentially, windshield wipers using Anderson's basic design became standard equipment.
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