War of the Words

always destruction. However, during the seventeen and eighteen centuries, England found another way to win a war, several of them. In fact, they resorted to insults. For many years, the English and the Dutch maintained an amicable relationship. When the Netherlands took up arms against the Kingdom of Spain in the late fifteen hundreds, it was the British who came to their aid. The ensuing Dutch revolt led to the creation of a new republic outside of Spain's rule. England

and Spain continued to fight for some years. However, the British Royal Navy had started to run low on funding. King Charles the First needed help, and, being aligned with the Catholic Church, sought assistance from another Catholic leaning country, Spain, but the Dutch had no idea. The other problem was that the Dutch were beginning to outpace the British when

it came to their cargo ships. They had already dominated the herring trade, taken over English held territories, fought onerous English taxes, and by the mid seventeenth century moved in on English trading routes. Oliver Cromwell, head of the Commonwealth of England, had had enough. With his iron fist. He managed to rebuild the Royal Navy and present the first real threat to Dutch seapower. It took issue with their more re s in a bowl, freighting rates and variety

of goods for sale. They also possessed far more cargo ships than the English. In sixteen fifty one, Parliament passed a first in a series of acts designed to reduce the netherlands dominance on sea trade. It prohibited any non English ship from bringing goods into English ports or its territories. The Dutch didn't take lightly to their former allies tactics. They started growing their navy once again. When England ordered that other country ships lowered their flags in the presence

of English vessels, the Dutch refused. Shortly thereafter, war broke out. The first Anglo Dutch War lasted two years, beginning in sixteen fifty two. Three more wars followed over the next several decades. Throughout that time, relations between the Dutch and the English were strained, but when they weren't fighting, the two nations resorted to less violent and more childish methods

of retribution. They called each other names. The Dutch spread rumors that the English were the spawn of Satan, and because of that they were born with tales. British sailors referred to their Dutch counterparts as butter boxes and joked about how much they drank whenever a natural disaster, such as a fire or a flood occurred in either country. Each side believed that the other had invited punishment from God for their bad behavior, and, contrary to popular belief,

time did not heal all wounds. When the wars finally ceased, neither side felt like reconciling with the other. In fact, things became worse. The English incorporated the word Dutch into their vocabulary to mean anything bad or inferior. Dutch courage, for example, meant someone who had to drink heavily to build up the bravery necessary to fight. Dutch comfort signified the silver lining that at least things couldn't get any worse. Many of these phrases aren't used today, as our sensibilities

and attitudes towards other cultures have matured since the seventeen hundreds. However, there is one saying that has held on despite its connotations, but still funny enough. It didn't start in England. Its first use was traced back to an article in the New York Times in eighteen seventy. S America, it seems, had also gotten into the habit of insulting the Dutch by equating their name with something unpleasant. The turn the

Americans had created was called a Dutch treat. It was used to describe an outing between two people where each person paid for their own food and drinks. Today, it's used any time people pay their own share, whether it's a first date or a big group events. Although we don't call it a Dutch treat anymore. Nowadays, we simply call it going Dutch. It was the golden age of the automobile, and Robert was an engineer who grew up just outside of Detroit, the heart of the American car industry.

Like the US to the country, Robert was in love with the steel machines racing across the open road. So when Robert became an engineer in the nineteen fifties, he focused on how to help people stay safer in their cars, and that brought him to the idea of improving a common part of the car safety, the windshield wiper. At the time, wipers had two settings on and off, but Robert knew that he could do better. He converted his basement into a cross between an engineering lab and an

automotive shop. Hopefully his new wife, Phillis knew what she was getting into when she married an inventor, because I can only imagine the array of parts and tools that would have filled his home workshop, separated from their laundry room by panels of glass. We do know that at the very least, Robert brought home a dashboard and windshield he's salvaged from a junkyard to test out his new mechanisms.

Motorized arms swept across the glass in front of him like arms of a clock, and Phillis must have been patients because the work took Robert ten years. When we factor in the fact that he was fishing his PhD, building a family, and starting a career teaching at a university in Detroit, that delay makes a lot of sense. But he involved the whole family in the project. On days when it started to rain, they would all run outside and dive into the car so that Robert could

test his latest version. By the end, his notes filled twenty three books, each three pages long. Eventually, though he cracked it. He had created a windshield wiper that was more than just on or off, but instead moved at variable speed. It was something new and that made it valuable to car manufacturers around Robert's home, so he set up a meeting with the company he loved, Ford. In

October of nineteen sixty three. He outfitted his Ford convertible with his finished invention and drove it down to the Ford plant, where he showed it off to the engineers. To Robert, the offer was clear, Ford should buy his invention and bring it into the company. Together they could make Ford cars safer for every driver. And when Ford called him back, it seemed like his American dream was coming true. But the second meeting didn't go quite the

way he expected. When he arrived, they showed him their own version of the intermittent wiper, inspired by his own creation. Of course, they didn't have the benefit of Robert's ten years of work, so they showered him with questions and he answered all of them. Show us how it works, they asked him, and we'll buy it. And as their conversations continued over time, it seemed like Robert was on

the team. But then the line went dead. When Ford finally rolled out cars with intermittent wipers in nineteen sixty nine, Robert and his invention weren't even mentioned, and once it was on the market, the invention spread how far well The idea was so good that eventually Robert's son Dennis, brought home the controls for a new system being used in Mercedes cars. When Robert crack did open, he realized

it was also a copy of his design. It was a massive blow, and for years Robert struggled to come to terms with his life's work being swiped by the biggest automakers on the planet. But Robert was a fighter. Fortunately, he had filed for a patent back in nineteen sixty four, and when it came through in nineteen sixty seven, it gave him what he needed to take the fight to big companies that were scooping up cash from his contribution. It wasn't easy though. In fact, the battle was hard

enough that Roberts family suffered. He poured everything he had into the struggle, not just for the money but for his work to be acknowledged, and there were major losses along the way. Robert often represented himself when no one was willing to take on the fight against big companies like General Motors. In those cases didn't always make it far, but in the end Robert would get some wins as well.

A jury ruled against Ford in nineteen ninety, and a judgment against Chrysler ordered the company to pay him thirty million dollars. It was even appealed all the way to the Supreme Court as the company tried to duel the inventor into the ground. Fortunately for Robert, the justices refused to bend to the big company's pressure. It became a classic story of the underdog coming out on top. But

there's one more thing that makes Robert's invention fascinating. You see, the whole project to prevent car accidents started out with an accident, and a bad one, but not a car crash. You see, when Robert was on his honeymoon, celebrating his brand new marriage, he did what so many people do and popped open a bottle of champagne. And that's when the cork became a dangerous projectile. It hit young Robert in the eye. His new wife, Phillis, rushed to his

side as the blood ran down his face. The injury was bad enough that he lost most of the sight in his left eye. In the end, it was Robert Kern's own accident that inspired an invention that would come to define his life's work, all inspired by the original intermittent wiper that we all benefit from every day, the lid of the human eye. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by

visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the world of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah M