“Mothers of Invention”

Windshield wipers and signal flares… They may not seem as though they have anything in common, yet both are very useful devices that can help save lives—and both were invented by a member of the so-called weaker sex (hah). However, the first took only an afternoon, while the second took years to develop. In honor of “Women’s History Month” this March, here’s how they came about…

Martha Hunt was only fourteen when she married Philadelphia engineer Benjamin Coston. Seven years later, in 1848, he died bankrupt, leaving her a destitute young mother with four small children to raise. While going through his possessions after his death, she discovered the prototype for a signal flare and realized that, if it worked, she could patent it and use the proceeds to support her family. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, but twenty-one year old Martha was not easily discouraged. Starting over from scratch, she determined to invent a functional model on her own. It took her almost a decade, but she finally perfected a system of red, green and white flares. They were called “Pyrotechnic Night Signals” and, years before the invention of the two-way radio, they enabled ships to communicate over great distances at night via color codes. Hundreds were bought by the US Navy and used extensively during the Civil War. Besides helping to maintain the Union blockade of Confederate ports, the flares are also credited with saving countless shipwreck victims after the war.

Some decades later, in 1903, an Alabama lady named Mary Anderson took a trip to New York City. One blustery afternoon found her, sketchbook in hand, trying to tour by streetcar, but her sightseeing was interrupted by the conductor having to stop every few minutes to clean the snow off his windshield. So, instead of recording the wonders of the city, Mary sketched a mechanical swinging arm activated by a lever, which would sweep the glass free of snow or rain. She patented her device the next year and, within ten years after that, windshield wipers would be standard equipment on all automobiles.

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