In honor of National Check Your Wipers Day Nov. 16, we’re looking at the lawsuit Ford Motor Co. lost to the inventor of intermittent windshield wipers.
Robert Kearns invented what he called “blinking” wipers in his basement after he lost sight in one eye due to a champagne cork incident on his wedding day. Blinking wipers act somewhat like a human eye, moving every few seconds instead of continuously as wipers had previously done.
In 1963, he showed Ford a new car in which he had installed his wipers. Then he showed his technology to Chrysler and General Motors. Kearns had a doctorate in
