Windscreen wiper

Patent illustration of 'window cleaner' by GEORGE J. CAPEWELL, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

One of the earliest recorded patents for the windscreen wiper is by George J. Capewell of Hartford Connecticut, which was filed on August 6, 1896.[1] His invention was for "windows of slow-moving craft; but it is more particularly adapted and intended for windows of rapidly-moving vehicles, such as high-speed locomotives and cars, with which it is necessary that the observer or driver should have a clear view of the path or track." Similar to current automotive wiper designs, his invention involves "usually two of these wipers, and they can be secured to the frame below the front board of the vehicle or behind the housing surrounding the window in position to be out of sight and in such manner that one will scrape off the heaviest part of the substance collected upon the glass." His patent illustration shows a circular window, although the patent notes "it is not essential that the glass be circular in form."

Other early designs for the windscreen wiper are credited to Polish concert pianist Józef Hofmann,[2] and to Mills Munitions, Birmingham, who also claimed to have been the first to patent windscreen wipers in England. At least three inventors patented windscreen cleaning devices at around the same time in 1903; Mary Anderson, Robert Douglass, and John Apjohn. In April 1911, a patent for windscreen wipers was registered by Sloan & Lloyd Barnes, patent agents of Liverpool, England, for Gladstone Adams of Whitley Bay.

Anderson's 1903 window cleaner design

American inventor Mary Anderson is popularly credited with devising the first operational windscreen wiper in 1903.[3][4] In Anderson's patent, she called her invention a "window cleaning device" for electric cars and other vehicles. Operated via a lever from inside a vehicle, her version of windscreen wipers closely resembles the windscreen wiper found on many early car models. Anderson had a model of her design manufactured, then filed a patent (US 743,801) on June 18, 1903 that was issued to her by the US Patent Office on November 10, 1903.[5][6]

A "locomotive-cab-window cleaner" on 12 March 1903.[7]

Apjohn's 1903 window cleaning apparatus design

Irish born inventor James Henry Apjohn (1845–1914) patented an "Apparatus for Cleaning Carriage, Motor Car and other Windows" which was stated to use either brushes or wipers and could be either motor driven or hand driven. The brushes or wipers were intended to clean either both up and down or in just one direction on a vertical window. Apjohn's invention had a priority date in the UK of 9 October 1903.[8]

John R. Oishei (1886-1968) formed the Tri-Continental Corporation in 1917. This company introduced the first windscreen wiper, Rain Rubber, for the slotted, two-piece windscreens found on many of the automobiles of the time. Today Trico Products is one of the world's largest manufacturers of windscreen wipers. Bosch has the world's biggest windscreen wiper factory in Tienen, Belgium, which produces 350,000 wiper blades every day.[9] The first automatic electric wiper arms were patented in 1917 by Charlotte Bridgwood.[10]

Inventor William M. Folberth and his brother, Fred, applied for a patent for an automatic windscreen wiper apparatus in 1919, which was granted in 1921.[11] It was the first automatic mechanism to be developed by an American, but the original invention is attributed by others to Hawaiian, Ormand Wall.[11] Trico later settled a patent dispute with Folberth and purchased Folberth's Cleveland company, the Folberth Auto Specialty Co. The new vacuum-powered system quickly became standard equipment on automobiles, and the vacuum principle was in use until about 1960. In the late 1950s, a feature common on modern vehicles first appeared, operating the wipers automatically for two or three passes when the windscreen washer button was pressed, making it unnecessary to manually turn the wipers on as well. Today, an electronic timer is used, but originally a small vacuum cylinder mechanically linked to a switch provided the delay as the vacuum leaked off.

The inventor of intermittent wipers (non-continuous, now including variable-rate wipers) might have been Raymond Anderson, who, in 1923, proposed an electro-mechanical design. (US Patent 1,588,399). In 1958, Oishei et al. filed a patent application describing not only electro-mechanical, but also thermal and hydraulic designs. (US Patent 2,987,747). Then, in 1961, John Amos, an engineer for the UK automotive engineering company Lucas Industries, filed the first patent application in the UK for a solid-state electronic design. (US patent 3,262,042).

In 1963, another form of intermittent wiper was invented by Robert Kearns, an engineering professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.[3] (United States Patent 3,351,836 – 1964 filing date). Kearns's design was intended to mimic the function of the human eye, which blinks only once every few seconds. In 1963, Kearns built his first intermittent wiper system using off-the-shelf electronic components. The interval between wipes was determined by the rate of current flow into a capacitor; when the charge in the capacitor reached a certain voltage, the capacitor would be discharged, activating one cycle of the wiper motor, and then repeating the process. Kearns showed his wiper design to the Ford Motor Company and proposed that they manufacture the design. Ford executives rejected Kearns' proposal at the time, but later offered a similar design as an option on the company's Mercury line, beginning with the 1969 models.[3] Kearns sued Ford in a multi-year patent dispute that Kearns eventually won in court,[12] inspiring the 2009 feature film Flash of Genius based on a 1993 New Yorker article that covered the legal battle.

In March 1970, French automotive manufacturer Citroën introduced more advanced rain-sensitive intermittent windscreen wipers on its SM model. When the intermittent function was selected, the wiper would make one sweep. If the windscreen was relatively dry, the wiper motor drew high current, which would set the control circuit timer to a long delay for the next wipe. If the motor drew little current, it indicated that the glass was still wet, and would set the timer to minimize the delay.

A V3A tram using a wiper geometry like Fig. 6, but uses a single wiper instead of two

• Works similar to Fig. 8 but not a split screen windscreen and rest state is at the bottom of the windscreen facing outwards.
  • Alpine A310 and Renault Alpine GTA
  • Panhard Dyna Z, Panhard PL 17 and Panhard 24
• Works similar to Fig. 2 but one wiper has its resting position up and the other down.
  • Simca Aronde
• Works similar to Fig. 9, but uses a single wiper.
  • AEC Routemaster
• Works similar to Fig. 6, but uses only one wiper.
  • V2A/V2B/V3A/V3B

Toyota Yaris with large single wiper

• Works as would Fig. 1, but uses a large, single pantograph wiper.
  • Audi A2
  • Honda Today
  • Renault Twingo I
  • Renault Kwid/City K-ZE
  • Dacia Spring
  • Citroën C1
  • Peugeot 107
  • Peugeot 108
  • Toyota Aygo
  • Lamborghini Murciélago
  • Lexus LFA
  • McLaren MP4-12C
  • Mercedes W140
  • Mitsubishi i
  • Datsun Go
  • Toyota Etios/Yaris/Vitz (XP130)
• Works as would Fig. 6, but the wipers are arranged upside down.
  • Renault PR100 and its articulated version Renault PR180.2
  • British Rail Class 92
• Works as would Fig. 1 or Fig. 10, but the wipers are arranged upside down.
  • New Routemaster
  • Alexander Dennis Enviro400, Alexander Dennis Enviro500

Single rear wiper on a Mitsubishi Outlander

Double rear wipers on a Toyota Camry (XV10) station wagon

Some vehicles are fitted with wipers (with or without washers) on the back window as well. Rear-window wipers are typically found on hatchbacks, station wagons / estates, sport utility vehicles, minivans, and other vehicles with more vertically-oriented rear windows that tend to accumulate dust. First offered in the 1940s, they achieved widespread popularity in the 1970s after their introduction on the Porsche 911 in 1966 and the Volvo 145 in 1969.[21]

In the 1960s, as interest in auto safety grew, engineers began researching various headlamp cleaning systems. In late 1968, Chevrolet introduced high pressure fluid headlamp washers on a variety of their 1969 models. In 1970, Saab Automobile introduced headlight wipers across their product range. These operated on a horizontal reciprocating mechanism, with a single motor. They were later superseded by a radial spindle action wiper mechanism, with individual motors on each headlamp. In 1972, headlamp cleaning systems became mandatory in Sweden.

Headlamp wipers have all but disappeared today with most modern designs relying solely on pressurized fluid spray to clean the headlights. This reduces manufacturing cost, minimizes aerodynamic drag, and complies with EU regulations limiting headlamp wiper use to glass-lensed units only (the majority of lenses today are made of plastic.)

Most windscreen wipers operate together with a windscreen washer; a pump that supplies a mixture of water, alcohol, and detergent (a blend called windscreen washer fluid) from a tank to the windscreen. The fluid is dispensed through small nozzles mounted on the hood. Conventional nozzles are usually used, but some designs use a fluidic oscillator to disperse the fluid more effectively.

In warmer climates, water may also work, but it can freeze in colder climates, damaging the pump. Although automobile antifreeze is chemically similar to windscreen wiper fluid, it should not be used because it can damage paint. The earliest documented idea for having a windscreen wiper unit hooked up to a windscreen washer fluid reservoir was in 1931, Richland Auto Parts Co, Mansfield, Ohio.[22][23] Uruguayan racecar driver and mechanic Héctor Suppici Sedes developed a windscreen washer in the late 1930s.[24]

Since 2012, nozzles are replaced on some cars (Tesla, Volvo XC60 2018-2021, Citroen C4 Cactus) by a system called AquaBlade, developed by the company Valeo. This system supplies the washing liquid directly from the spoiler element of the wiper blade. This system suppresses visual disturbances during driving and so reduces the reaction time of the driver in case of incident.[25]

Some larger cars are equipped with hidden wipers (or depressed-park wipers). When wipers are switched off in standard non-hidden designs, a "parking" mechanism or circuit moves the wipers to the lower extreme of the wiped area near the bottom of the windscreen, but still in sight. For designs that hide the wipers, the windscreen extends below the rear edge of the bonnet. The wipers park themselves below the wiping range at the bottom of the windscreen, but out of sight. Late model vehicles that hide wiper blades under the windscreen need to be placed in a service position in order to lift the wiper blade from the windscreen using the wiper service position.

Some vehicles are now available with automatic or driver-programmable windscreen wipers that detect the presence and amount of rain using a rain sensor. The sensor automatically adjusts the speed and frequency of the blades according to the amount of rain detected. These controls usually have a manual override.

Rain-sensing windscreen wipers appeared on various models in the late 20th century, one of the first being the Citroën SM. As of early 2006, rain-sensing wipers are optional or standard on all Cadillacs and most Volkswagens, and are available on many other mainstream manufacturers.

The rain-sensing wipers system currently employed by most car manufacturers today was originally invented and patented in 1978 by Australian, Raymond J. Noack, see U.S. Patents 4,355,271 and 5,796,106. The original system automatically operated the wipers, lights and windscreen washers.