The Mother of Invention  

Did you know that a woman invented the windshield wiper? According to EnchantedLearning.com, Mary Anderson invented the device in 1903 to help streetcars operate more safely in the rain. She patented her idea in 1905. Her device allowed the streetcar operator to control the external, swinging arm wipers from within the car. Ten years later windshield wipers became a standard device included on all cars.
 

Blunders as Blessings

Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847. His grandfather was an actor and wanted to unleash the power of the spoken word with all his heart. He was especially interested in helping people for whom speaking well was a challenge. He published writings on such topics as practical elocution, stammering and other speech impediments. His son Melville was also interested in elocution and joined his father in his endeavors.

Melville fell in love with a deaf woman and married her. She became the mother of Alexander Graham Bell. A painter of miniatures, she lived in a world of almost total silence. She eventually developed a talent for the piano. She was determined to “hear.” This desire would affect the path of Alexander’s life.

Though others spoke to his mother through her ear, Alexander chose to speak to his mother using low voice tones and placing his mouth very close to her forehead. The young boy thought that his mother would be able to hear him through the vibrations his deep tones would make. Later this would play in his work with sound waves. Alexander also became aware that with technology came lifestyle improvements and he wanted to use technology to help those like his mother, who could not hear.

As Alexander grew older his intellect also grew. A German physicist intrigued him, and though he could not read German, he didn’t let that stop him from studying the physicist’s work. The physicist’s thesis was that vowel sounds could be produced by a combination of electrical tuning forks and resonators. However, when bell read the work he mistakenly interpreted what the physicist said and believed the text said that vowel sounds could be transmitted over a wire. Eventually this misunderstanding would lead him to his electrical work and of the invention he is most famous for — the telephone. Bell said of his blunder: “It gave me confidence. If I had been able to read German, I might never have begun my experiments in electricity.”