An Old Timey Podcast4 Jun 2025

57: Windshield Wipers! (Patreon Bonus)

Picture it. Ontario. 1953. It was Robert and Phyllis Kearns’ wedding night. Bob did his best to open the champagne, but the cork shot out and smacked him square in the eye. He screamed! Phyllis screamed! There was blood everywhere!

Bob ultimately went blind in that eye, but the experience got him thinking about eyes and how they work. So, years later, when he was driving in the rain and his one-speed windshield wipers went too fast for the sprinkle, he thought to himself, “I wish windshield wipers worked more like an eyelid.” And since Bob had a PhD in mechanical engineering, he immediately got to work on the first intermittent windshield wiper. Things went great for a minute! …and then they got terrible.

Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“The flash of genius,” by John Seabrook for The New Yorker
“Inventor Winning Long Legal Battle With Auto Maker : Patents: Robert Kearns developed the intermittent windshield wiper more than 20 years ago. He claims the car companies stole his idea.” by James Risen for the Los Angeles Times
“An obsession with justice and auto parts,” by Michael Cieply for The New York Times
“Accomplished, frustrated inventor dies,” by Matt Schudel for the Washington Post
“The epic, decades-long battle between Ford and a small-time inventor,” by Zachary Crockett for The Hustle
“Wiper man Robert Kearns won his patent fight with Ford, but that didn’t mean he was out of the woods,” by Ken Gross for People.com
“Alabama woman stuck in NYC traffic in 1902 invented the windshield wiper,” by Joe Palca for NPR
“Who made that windshield wiper?” by Dashka Slater for The New York Times Magazine

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