††††A windscreen wiper is a device for wiping rain from the windscreen of a motor vehicle.
In the early models, most cars had windscreens divided into two sections lengthways. In wet or foggy weather the upper half could be tilted open to give a better view of the road. As cars became faster and windscreens larger, new methods had to be sought. In 1911, Prince Henry of Prussia devised a strip of rubber mounted on a wooden frame which was moved up and down the windscreen by the driver. An improved version of this wiper, manufactured under the name of the 'Gabriel' was operated by pulling a string.
The first automatic windscreen wipers appeared in the United States in 1916. They worked by suction from the engine and had a tendency to go fast when the engine was turning slowly, and to wipe slowly when the engine was working at high speed, the opposite of what was needed. In 1923, the first electric wipers were produced in the United States. But the electric motors which operated them were unreliable and it was many years before they completely replaced suction wipers.
