Charlotte Bridgwood facts for kids

Charlotte Bridgwood (born Dunn, 18 August 1861 – 20 August 1929) was an American inventor. She was also a talented vaudeville performer, which means she entertained people on stage with different acts. Charlotte is best known for inventing the first automatic windshield wipers for cars.

Charlotte Bridgwood: An Inventor's Story

Charlotte Bridgwood was a very clever inventor. She loved cars and wanted to make them safer and easier to drive. At the time, cars had windshield wipers that drivers had to operate by hand using levers. This was difficult, especially in bad weather.

Inventing the Automatic Wiper

Charlotte decided to improve these manual wipers. She owned a company called Bridgwood Manufacturing Company. Through her company, she worked on a new idea: automatic windshield wipers. These wipers would work by themselves, without the driver needing to pull a lever.

She called her invention the "Electric Storm Windshield Cleaner." In 1917, she received a patent for her new design. A patent is like a special document that proves someone invented something and gives them the right to make and sell it.

However, Charlotte's wipers used rollers instead of the blades we see today. Also, her patent expired in 1920 because she didn't produce many of them. Because of this, her invention wasn't widely recognized at first.

Her Legacy in Car Technology

Even though Charlotte Bridgwood didn't get much credit right away, her idea was very important. Just two years after her patent expired, a car company called Cadillac started using automatic wipers in their cars. This showed how useful her invention was.

Charlotte also had a famous daughter, Florence Lawrence. Florence was a silent movie star, and she also followed in her mother's footsteps by inventing things for cars. Charlotte Bridgwood's work helped make driving safer and more convenient for everyone.

Patents

• In October 1917, Charlotte Bridgwood received a patent for the first automatic windshield cleaner.