A tear jerking obit . . .

[Nelson Bradford]

We were sorry to hear about the passing of Robert Kearns, the man who
invented the intermittent windshield wiper. At his memorial service there
wasn't a dry eye in the place.

Then there was.

Then there wasn't.

Then there was.

Then there wasn't.

[Sharon Isley]

*groans*

[Jim Severns]

I love interval wipers

I started driving in 1975 in a 1967 Dodge Polara given to me by my dad. That car looked great, but was very unreliable and used about 2 quarts of oil per fill up.

In the spring of 1976 I found a really nice condition 1972 Ford Galaxie 2-door at a dealer. After a bit of haggling, I was soon committed a new monthly payment of $72 and the proud owner of 400 cubic inches of American power and travel independence.

Just to the right of the steering column on that car was a knob labeled “WIPERS”. Turn one click to the right to get slow, 2 clicks for fast. I was driving one day when the rain stopped, so I turned the knob all the way back to the left to shut them off.

After a lengthy pause I was startled when the wipers suddenly swiped in front of me. Frankly, it just about scared the living daylights out of me. After some fiddling with the knob, I finally figured out that turning right got slow/fast, turning left got interval and stopping in the middle turned them off.

Great feature, but what a way to find out.

Ah, the memories.