The windshield wiper was first invented in 1910. The first regular production automobiles had been on the roads since 1900, which means that cars were driving on roads in all kinds of weather for at least ten years without windshield wipers!
The idea for windshield wipers was born when the President of the Trico company in the United States was driving his car on a rainy day and, unable to see the road well because of the weather, he hit a boy on a bicycle. Though the boy was not hurt badly, the driver was considerably shaken by the experience. It was his shock at the danger of driving without seeing the road properly that brought about the birth of windshield wipers.
But a number of different methods were tried before the motor-driven wiper systems we are familiar with today came about. The initial windshield wiper design was one in which a rubber blade on the windshield was rotated manually.While this allowed the windshield to be cleared and forward vision improved, the operator's hand soon tired, and the design was abandoned. The next design was powered by a vacuum driven pump. Unfortunately this design was plagued by the fact that its speed of operation changed with the speed of the vehicle. This failure finally led to the attachment of a motor to the wiper arm, which is essentially the one still in use today.