8. Windshield Wiper
Mary Anderson was the inventor of the first windshield wipes. She invented it in 1903 and her work changed the lives of every car owner. Before that, drivers had to get out of their cars to wipe off their windshields when it was raining or snowing.
However, at that time, nobody appreciated her invention, but in 2011 she was posthumously inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame.
“She was riding a streetcar and it was snowing,” says the Rev.
“She observed that the streetcar driver had to get out and continually clean off the windshield,” said Sara-Scott Wingo, rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Richmond, Va., and Anderson’s great-great-niece.
