Fox News: Meet the American who invented windshield wipers, Mary Anderson, Alabama entrepreneur
- #news
- #headline

Figure timeline
Mary Elizabeth Anderson was an American inventor and entrepreneur credited with inventing the first operational windshield wiper. She was born in Greene County, Alabama, and later became known as a real-estate developer in Birmingham as well as the operator of a cattle ranch and vineyard in California. In her 1903 U.S. patent, Anderson described her design as a “window cleaning device for electric…
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
business · American inventor (1866–1953) · inventor · entrepreneur · real estate developer · rancher · winegrower · also Mary Anderson, Mary Anderson (inventor), Mary Elizabeth Anderson, Anderson
Born 19 February 1866 · Died 27 June 1953 · Q17518
20 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
1 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
Fox News: Meet the American who invented windshield wipers, Mary Anderson, Alabama entrepreneur
Awarded National Inventors Hall of Fame (2011).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Anderson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Decades after her death, Anderson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her pioneering contribution to transportation safety
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“The Newton/Leibniz Conflict in Context”
Text from Wikiquote, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Died 1953-06-27.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cadillac became the first car manufacturer to adopt them as standard equipment
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cadillac made it standard for all their vehicles
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Without having been put into mass production
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Charlotte Bridgewood patented the “electric storm windshield cleaner,” the first automatic wiper system that used rollers instead of blades
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The United States Patent Office awarded Anderson patent number 743,801 for her Window Cleaning device
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Was granted, a 17-year patent for a windshield wiper
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
When Anderson applied for the patent, cars were rich men's toys
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
It rarely occurred to anyone that rain on a moving vehicle’s windshield was a problem that could be eliminated
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Visited to New York City in the winter
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Anderson left Birmingham and relocated to Fresno, California, where she operated a cattle ranch and vineyard for several years
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Anderson moved with her widowed mother and sister to Birmingham, Alabama, which was then developing rapidly as an industrial center
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And accounts note that the family was able to live on the proceeds of his estate, which provided financial stability during her childhood
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
At Burton Hill Plantation in Greene County, Alabama, to John C
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1866-02-19.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Connections