Mary Elizabeth Anderson (February 19, 1866 – June 27, 1953)

The patent office awarded U.S. Patent No. 743,801 to a Birmingham, Alabama woman named Mary Anderson for her “window cleaning
device for electric cars and other vehicles to remove snow, ice or
sleet from the window.” When she received her patent, Anderson
tried to sell it to a Canadian manufacturing firm, but the company refused: The device had no practical value, it said, and so was not
worth any money. Though mechanical windshield wipers were
standard equipment in passenger cars by around 1913, Anderson
never profited from the invention.