When we grab the steering wheel in the morning, none of us ever thinks about the countless inventions, patents, and ideas that allow us to travel the roads of half the world, comfortably seated in our cars.
I’m pretty sure none of us says, “Thank you, windshield wipers, for everything you do.”
And yet, if it rains, without them we’d be forced to drive as if our heads were stuck inside a fish tank.Such is the ungrateful fate of many objects hidden inside our vehicles. Perfectly invisible—until they’re not there anymore.
The truth is that behind every little gadget we take for granted inside our beloved machine, there’s a story made of imagination, chemical processes, legal battles, and more than a little reckless genius.If I told you, for instance, that the very idea of windshield wipers came to a woman watching snowflakes fall from the sky?In December 1902, Mary Anderson was in New York, in the middle of yet another North American winter, watching drivers crank down their windows to lean out and clear the windshield with their hands.
Mary—an old-fashioned woman from an old-fashioned Alabama—thought to herself: “What if there were an arm to do it for them?”
Said and done.
Mary went home and patented a contraption with an interior lever, a spring, and a rubber blade.It was the very first manual windshield wiper, whose motion allowed continuous cleaning of glass, rain, and snow. Patent no. 743801 was registered on November 10, 1903, and—as often happens with world-changing inventions—nobody paid her any attention. Still, the idea was born.Following in Mary’s footsteps, in 1917 it was Charlotte Bridgwood’s turn—the daughter of cinema and mother of actress Florence Lawrence—to try her luck with a roller-style electric wiper. It quickly turned into another commercial flop.
Charlotte patented it anyway as the “Storm Windshield Cleaner” in October 1917, and although everyone recognized it as innovative, the market wasn’t interested, and the patent expired in 1920.That’s when versions with motors began to appear.
In the 1920s, the Folberth brothers introduced pneumatic wipers powered by exhaust gases, while in 1926 Bosch developed some electric versions with blades.
But it was thanks to a certain Robert Kearns that, during the roaring ’60s, the intermittent wiper system was born—inspired by nothing less than the blink of an eye.Only problem: in 1969 Ford and Chrysler stole his idea. What followed was a legal battle that dragged on for more than thirty years.
I’m pretty sure none of us says, “Thank you, windshield wipers, for everything you do.”
And yet, if it rains, without them we’d be forced to drive as if our heads were stuck inside a fish tank.Such is the ungrateful fate of many objects hidden inside our vehicles. Perfectly invisible—until they’re not there anymore.
The truth is that behind every little gadget we take for granted inside our beloved machine, there’s a story made of imagination, chemical processes, legal battles, and more than a little reckless genius.If I told you, for instance, that the very idea of windshield wipers came to a woman watching snowflakes fall from the sky?In December 1902, Mary Anderson was in New York, in the middle of yet another North American winter, watching drivers crank down their windows to lean out and clear the windshield with their hands.
Mary—an old-fashioned woman from an old-fashioned Alabama—thought to herself: “What if there were an arm to do it for them?”
Said and done.
Mary went home and patented a contraption with an interior lever, a spring, and a rubber blade.It was the very first manual windshield wiper, whose motion allowed continuous cleaning of glass, rain, and snow. Patent no. 743801 was registered on November 10, 1903, and—as often happens with world-changing inventions—nobody paid her any attention. Still, the idea was born.Following in Mary’s footsteps, in 1917 it was Charlotte Bridgwood’s turn—the daughter of cinema and mother of actress Florence Lawrence—to try her luck with a roller-style electric wiper. It quickly turned into another commercial flop.
Charlotte patented it anyway as the “Storm Windshield Cleaner” in October 1917, and although everyone recognized it as innovative, the market wasn’t interested, and the patent expired in 1920.That’s when versions with motors began to appear.
In the 1920s, the Folberth brothers introduced pneumatic wipers powered by exhaust gases, while in 1926 Bosch developed some electric versions with blades.
But it was thanks to a certain Robert Kearns that, during the roaring ’60s, the intermittent wiper system was born—inspired by nothing less than the blink of an eye.Only problem: in 1969 Ford and Chrysler stole his idea. What followed was a legal battle that dragged on for more than thirty years.
And who, you might wonder, first came up with that stubborn piece of fabric that hugs our chests and keeps us anchored to the seat?It all started with an American gentleman named Edward J. Claghorn, who in 1885 patented the very first “safety belt for tourists”—not for cars, but for yacht passengers, designed mainly to keep people from falling overboard.Fast forward to 1949: Nash Motors became the first car manufacturer to offer a 2-point seat belt as an optional feature for front seats.Then came Nils Bohlin at Volvo—and by now our story had reached Sweden, in 1959. Bohlin, an engineer with a strong aeronautical background, developed and patented the 3-point seat belt: lap and diagonal, anchored at a single point.He filed the U.S. patent on July 10, 1962 (US Patent 3043625), but Volvo had already introduced it to the market back in August 1959.Bohlin’s version is credited with saving more than one million lives and cutting road fatalities by 50%.From that moment on, in 1968, Volvo made the patent open for everyone to use—actively encouraging its adoption across the entire automotive industry.
Now imagine a sack full of sodium azide, ready to blow up in your face at 300 km/h.
The powder inside, once triggered by an electric detonator (think cartoon fuse with Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner), ignites almost instantly and produces nitrogen in 40 milliseconds.
And boom. The cushion inflates before your face and you survive.The first carmaker to fit a modern airbag to one of its vehicles was General Motors in 1973.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that airbags spread worldwide, and today you’ll find them pretty much everywhere.
Everywhere.
At knee height, inside the doors, in the roof, in the side pillars. Even outside the car, on luxury SUVs.At Takata, the Japanese giant decided to be contrary and use ammonium nitrate instead of sodium azide.
The tiny detail the engineers overlooked was that, in humid conditions, the salt turns the airbag into a grenade — a defect that during crash testing caused more than 30 fatalities.
Ça va sans dire. Project shelved.
The powder inside, once triggered by an electric detonator (think cartoon fuse with Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner), ignites almost instantly and produces nitrogen in 40 milliseconds.
And boom. The cushion inflates before your face and you survive.The first carmaker to fit a modern airbag to one of its vehicles was General Motors in 1973.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that airbags spread worldwide, and today you’ll find them pretty much everywhere.
Everywhere.
At knee height, inside the doors, in the roof, in the side pillars. Even outside the car, on luxury SUVs.At Takata, the Japanese giant decided to be contrary and use ammonium nitrate instead of sodium azide.
The tiny detail the engineers overlooked was that, in humid conditions, the salt turns the airbag into a grenade — a defect that during crash testing caused more than 30 fatalities.
Ça va sans dire. Project shelved.
The modern ABS was created in 1971 by an Italian, Mario Palazzetti, at the Fiat Research Center.
Originally called “Antiskid,” the system’s patents were later sold to Bosch, which commercialized it under the name ABS.The operating principles are fairly straightforward. Sensors placed on the wheels detect the speed of each tire. An ECU compares the signals and decides whether one of the wheels is locking up, while at the same time, diligent hydraulic valves modulate brake pressure instantly through a pump that quickly restores pressure after release—cycling up to 20 times per second.In emergency situations, pressure is applied and released rapidly to prevent all four wheels from locking, while the driver feels the characteristic vibration in the brake pedal.Like many inventions, ABS has always had its pros and cons.
Its main advantage: it allows a car to maintain steering ability while braking on asphalt.Its main drawback: on unstable surfaces (like snow, ice, or gravel), ABS can actually increase stopping distance.The U.S. Patent 3707313, filed in 1972 by Palazzetti and his team, literally describes a system that balances pressure between front and rear wheels, coordinating braking efficiency—though it didn’t yet equip each wheel with separate sensors.
Originally called “Antiskid,” the system’s patents were later sold to Bosch, which commercialized it under the name ABS.The operating principles are fairly straightforward. Sensors placed on the wheels detect the speed of each tire. An ECU compares the signals and decides whether one of the wheels is locking up, while at the same time, diligent hydraulic valves modulate brake pressure instantly through a pump that quickly restores pressure after release—cycling up to 20 times per second.In emergency situations, pressure is applied and released rapidly to prevent all four wheels from locking, while the driver feels the characteristic vibration in the brake pedal.Like many inventions, ABS has always had its pros and cons.
Its main advantage: it allows a car to maintain steering ability while braking on asphalt.Its main drawback: on unstable surfaces (like snow, ice, or gravel), ABS can actually increase stopping distance.The U.S. Patent 3707313, filed in 1972 by Palazzetti and his team, literally describes a system that balances pressure between front and rear wheels, coordinating braking efficiency—though it didn’t yet equip each wheel with separate sensors.
To test the design of all these contraptions, today we use dummies packed with sensors that measure every kind of stress at every point of a potential driver’s or passenger’s body.
Back in the 1930s and ’40s, however, American universities—just like medical schools—used actual human bodies.
Wayne State University in Detroit was a pioneer in this field.The problem is, mannequins don’t have spleens or tibias to break—cadavers do.
And it was precisely thanks to this somewhat macabre practice that researchers discovered how, in certain collisions, knees would smash through dashboards and chests would cave in—prompting the introduction of padded dashboards and collapsible steering wheels.
Even so, countless lives were saved.Today, tests are conducted by EuroNCAP and IIHS, with 64 km/h crash trials using state-of-the-art digital dummies.
But if your car has a 5-star safety rating, you should also thank all those deceased who flew into windshields in the name of science.Macabre? Perhaps. Useful? Absolutely.
Back in the 1930s and ’40s, however, American universities—just like medical schools—used actual human bodies.
Wayne State University in Detroit was a pioneer in this field.The problem is, mannequins don’t have spleens or tibias to break—cadavers do.
And it was precisely thanks to this somewhat macabre practice that researchers discovered how, in certain collisions, knees would smash through dashboards and chests would cave in—prompting the introduction of padded dashboards and collapsible steering wheels.
Even so, countless lives were saved.Today, tests are conducted by EuroNCAP and IIHS, with 64 km/h crash trials using state-of-the-art digital dummies.
But if your car has a 5-star safety rating, you should also thank all those deceased who flew into windshields in the name of science.Macabre? Perhaps. Useful? Absolutely.
The road through automotive curiosities certainly doesn’t end here.In 1921, Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler launched the Tropfenwagen—the first production car ever optimized in a wind tunnel.
Its drag coefficient was just 0.28, which is still surprisingly impressive even today.To reduce resistance, Rumpler introduced curved glass surfaces made from a single sheet.
Once the prototype was complete, he sold around a hundred units, and then history promptly forgot both him and his four-wheeled “drop,” doomed by its not-so-muscular looks and the complete absence of a trunk.At least, before being consigned to the great automotive void, it had one last moment of glory—as a supporting actor in the film Metropolis.
Its drag coefficient was just 0.28, which is still surprisingly impressive even today.To reduce resistance, Rumpler introduced curved glass surfaces made from a single sheet.
Once the prototype was complete, he sold around a hundred units, and then history promptly forgot both him and his four-wheeled “drop,” doomed by its not-so-muscular looks and the complete absence of a trunk.At least, before being consigned to the great automotive void, it had one last moment of glory—as a supporting actor in the film Metropolis.
The idea of the car as a lifeboat came from Walter C. Jerome who, disgusted by the imperfections of 1950s American cars, set out to design a body in two separate pieces—engine/chassis below and a raised passenger cabin on top—complete with a 360° rotating dome straight out of The Jetsons.Rubber-clad wheels, sliding doors, integrated roll bar.
Alas, Walter’s project never made it past the concept stage, and today it rests quietly in the archives of the Lane Motor Museum.
Alas, Walter’s project never made it past the concept stage, and today it rests quietly in the archives of the Lane Motor Museum.
And what if I told you that having a fifth wheel on a car would make parking an absolute breeze?
Well, it’s not just me saying that.Back in the 1930s, inventor Brooks Walker patented a mechanism with a fifth wheel mounted perpendicular to the rear axle. It would lift the back of the car and swivel it sideways to slide neatly into a parallel parking spot.The project even made it into global magazines like Life and the New York Post.
But no automaker ever adopted it.
And so, alas, that’s where the story ends.
Well, it’s not just me saying that.Back in the 1930s, inventor Brooks Walker patented a mechanism with a fifth wheel mounted perpendicular to the rear axle. It would lift the back of the car and swivel it sideways to slide neatly into a parallel parking spot.The project even made it into global magazines like Life and the New York Post.
But no automaker ever adopted it.
And so, alas, that’s where the story ends.
But where do we even begin with the Dymaxion Car?
This time we’re looking at a genuine UFO on wheels, born in the 1930s out of the mind of Buckminster Fuller—and backed by a wallet full of ambition.Three wheels, rear-mounted engine, a 90° steering system on the single back wheel, a lightweight aerodynamic body, and even… a hint of flyability!The project also featured a periscope instead of a rear window. Unfortunately, its terrible handling—and a fatal accident during prototype testing—put an abrupt end to the dream of the flying zucchini.
This time we’re looking at a genuine UFO on wheels, born in the 1930s out of the mind of Buckminster Fuller—and backed by a wallet full of ambition.Three wheels, rear-mounted engine, a 90° steering system on the single back wheel, a lightweight aerodynamic body, and even… a hint of flyability!The project also featured a periscope instead of a rear window. Unfortunately, its terrible handling—and a fatal accident during prototype testing—put an abrupt end to the dream of the flying zucchini.
In 1941, the vegetable-plastic car was born.
Ford threw itself into the project and built a car with a body made of bioplastic derived from soy, corn, hemp, and flax—25% lighter than a traditional metal shell.This jewel of sustainability before its time was unveiled in 1941 as a “strategic reserve for the war.”
The idea was considered brilliant—only to vanish inexorably, right after the war, in the smoky return of steel.
Ford threw itself into the project and built a car with a body made of bioplastic derived from soy, corn, hemp, and flax—25% lighter than a traditional metal shell.This jewel of sustainability before its time was unveiled in 1941 as a “strategic reserve for the war.”
The idea was considered brilliant—only to vanish inexorably, right after the war, in the smoky return of steel.
From the U.S. came two ideas that, thankfully, never made it off the runway.In the 1960s and ’70s, someone came up with the notion of a grill to cook hamburgers using exhaust heat.
Food was cooked while driving, somewhere between the smell of gasoline and the craving for a fried burger balanced on the steering wheel.The other invention? A built-in toilet in the car seat, complete with plumbing.
Perfect for hellish road trips and endless traffic jams under the scorching August sun.
There was a promise of freedom in the project—but once again, fortunately for everyone’s noses, it never took off.
On the other hand, a few rocket engineers decided to reinvent the steering wheel.
In 1965, Ford experimented with a “twist wheel” system: two disks you twisted with your wrists instead of turning a wheel. Supposedly, it required less effort, gave a better view of the road, and even made parking easier.The only problem? The aerospace engineers overlooked one small detail: nobody on Earth wanted to drive twisting their wrists like some kind of space-age DJ.
A little too much rocket science, not enough steering wheel.
Food was cooked while driving, somewhere between the smell of gasoline and the craving for a fried burger balanced on the steering wheel.The other invention? A built-in toilet in the car seat, complete with plumbing.
Perfect for hellish road trips and endless traffic jams under the scorching August sun.
There was a promise of freedom in the project—but once again, fortunately for everyone’s noses, it never took off.
On the other hand, a few rocket engineers decided to reinvent the steering wheel.
In 1965, Ford experimented with a “twist wheel” system: two disks you twisted with your wrists instead of turning a wheel. Supposedly, it required less effort, gave a better view of the road, and even made parking easier.The only problem? The aerospace engineers overlooked one small detail: nobody on Earth wanted to drive twisting their wrists like some kind of space-age DJ.
A little too much rocket science, not enough steering wheel.
Surely one of the most outrageous inventions must be credited once again to Ford’s devilish creativity: the Nucleon, a 1958 prototype car powered by a mini nuclear reactor.On paper, the idea was flawless.
A car that would never need refueling and could drive non-stop for half an Ice Age.Unfortunately, the dangers of runaway radiation—and plain old common sense—brought everything to a halt just before humanity risked wiping itself out ahead of schedule.In the end, creativity always comes at a price.
A car that would never need refueling and could drive non-stop for half an Ice Age.Unfortunately, the dangers of runaway radiation—and plain old common sense—brought everything to a halt just before humanity risked wiping itself out ahead of schedule.In the end, creativity always comes at a price.
