Willis Haviland Carrier
Posted on 02/25/2005 8:41:37 AM PST by Rakkasan1
DETROIT -- Robert Kearns, the inventor of intermittent windshield wipers, has died of cancer, according to family members. He was 77.
Kearns died Feb. 9 at his home in suburban Baltimore and was buried in Michigan on a misty Valentine's Day.
"It was going just enough to have the wipers going on intermittent. I thought, `How appropriate,'" Kearns' daughter, Maureen Kearns, told the Detroit Free Press for a story published Friday.
Kearns was born in Gary, Ind., and grew up in suburban Detroit. He was a member of the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency, during World War II. After the war, he earned engineering degrees from the University of Detroit and Wayne State University and a doctorate from Case Western Reserve University.
In 1967, Kearns patented the intermittent wipers he invented. He demonstrated the system to Ford Motor Co., which introduced cars with intermittent wipers in 1978. Other automakers soon followed.
Kearns filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Ford and collected $10 million in 1990. Five years later, the U.S. Supreme Court let Kearns collect around $21 million from Chrysler Corp. for using his design.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Hmmm. Should we all clean our windshields at noon?
Sources close to the Kearns said he kept going back & forth, back & forth, between his 2 homes.
From wnat I read, he lost his family and friends over this lawsuit. It became an obsession. As much as I like that he won over those who stole his idea, he paid an awfully high price. More than I would pay.
I heard the same thing.
Usually, it is better to "lose" a negotiation than to "win" a litigation.
Should we drive with our wipers at half-wipe?
The global automotive cartel doesn't have much respect for intellectual property rights when they belong to a mere individual. Just keep that in mind as the puppet for transnational corporatism and plutocracy makes his bid for fast track authority to ram CAFTA up our butts.
My wife's cousin worked at the firm that represented him in some of his later lawsuits. He said that Kearns spent nearly every dime he had to get back at the auto companies. Sad.
I already did it today. Ice was on the top.
Willis Haviland Carrier
Having grown up in the desert, where temps can reach as high as 130, I can appreciate his addition to modern luxury.
Try J. C. Whitney, or Warshoski... years ago I retrofitted my 1972 Nova with an add-on that gave intermittent wiping along with the normal hi/low speeds.
Thanks!
check the JC Whitney catalog. they probably have an upgrade
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