Windshield wipers’ overlooked female inventor | Popular Science
Mary Anderson patented the device in 1903—only to be told her idea had no commercial value.
by Shoshi Parks
Mar 4, 2026

Mary Anderson couldn’t sell her windshield wiper idea

Anderson, for her part, did want to sell her window-cleaning device. For at least a year-and-a-half, she hawked her invention to manufacturers in the fledgling motor vehicle industry. Each responded with some variation of the rejection sent by Montreal firm Dinning & Eckenstein on June 20, 1905: “We regret to state that we do not consider [the window-cleaning device] to be of such commercial value as would warrant our undertaking its sale.”
When cars got windshield wipers

Five years after Mary Anderson was issued her patent, car maker Henry Ford introduced his Ford Model T. Five years later, Ford introduced the moving assembly line, an innovation which drastically lessened the time it took to build the car and greatly reduced its cost to consumers.

As cars became ubiquitous across the U.S., manufacturers’ eyes were opened to the value of the windshield wiper. By the early 1920s, a version of Anderson’s invention became standard on most vehicles.

Anderson likely never earned any royalties or licensing fees since her U.S. Patent No. 743,801 expired in 1920. Indeed, car manufacturers didn’t use her exact design.