Driving in the pouring rain without the use of windsreen wipers is, generally speaking, not to be encouraged. I learned this while driving back from a particularly messy festival when I thought it would be a good idea to let The Force guide me home. I haven't been insured since.
The point is, without windscreen wipers, driving is like turning on the charm with your neighbour's daughter down the local: you never get anywhere and invariably have a tough time explaining it to the police afterwards.
Which is why part of me is really happy they've decided to pay homage to Robert Kearns, inventor of aforementioned automotive rain banishers. After all, it follows a rich vein of Hollywood hokum celebrating the power of creative science: from the Goonies to Hudsucker Proxy, not forgetting the mother of all inventor movies - Back to the Future.
But then I got to thinking: why stop with Kearns? Why not commit the lives of other inventors of similar historical prestige to celluloid immortality?
In 1982 Richard Penley was involved in the fight to preserve the humble American clothespin industry from cheap Chinese imports. Wouldn't that make a great film?
Eugen Baumann, a German living in the C19th, was responsible for PVC. He must have had a colourful life.
And let's not forget the crazy world of Thomas Edison, the most famous of all the modern inventors who nicked almost all his ideas off other people and ran off down the street to the patent office before they could say 'lightbulb'.
So I'm all for celebrating the life of Robert Kearns, not that I've ever heard of him nor, for that matter, previously given a toss about where windscreen wipers come from.
I do know, though, they do help with driving in the rain - with our without The Force.
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2103970,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=16
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