#390: Screenscraper
Chilled by the process of scraping my windscreen clear of ice in the mornings, it seemed to me there must be a better way.
Today’s invention is an upgrade to the standard window cleaning device in which a magnetic handle is swept across the inside surface of a window, driving a magnetic pad to clean the outside.
Here, the external pad is equipped with a replaceable plastic blade (in the form of a credit card blank). This can be used to scrape at the ice on a windscreen -without having to stand outside.
The inside section could have a slender handle which would allow the far side of the screen to be reached from the driver’s seat and (if necessary) to carry a wire from the cigarette lighter to a heating coil inside the pad which is in contact with the screen’s inner surface.
This would work best in conjunction with a windscreen wiper motor circuit which, when sensing a fall in temperature below zero, would occasionally activate the windscreen wipers overnight and thus minimise the build-up of ice on the screen.
Comment by G. T. Smith
Clearly, this inventor doesn’t live in a real winter environment. Th idea of a magnetically bonded ice scraper kludging it’s way through a Montana winter ice build-up is to laugh.
This is an invention meant to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. You’re gonna be out of the car anyhow, unplugging the block heater, clearingthe headlights, freeing the windshield wipers from their snow berm tomb … scrape the damn windshield while you’re out there.
Comment by Patrick
If I lived in a country that cold, I’d probably invent the centrally heated garage…or just telecommute…or wait for Spring and then move South.
Comment by naperville movers
Awesome article.