If you’re like the rest of us, you probably have not given much thought to the fact that your windshield wipers pause in between sweeps. In fact, there’s enough of a story behind its creation to serve as the basis for a new movie, “Flash of Genius.”

The film, which premiered last Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival, follows Robert Kearns, the engineer who invented the now ubiquitous intermittent windshield wiper. In 1963 he showed his new idea to Ford, which promptly installed it on its vehicles without bothering to pay him. His decades-long legal battle with the then omnipotent auto industry cost him his family-life and, to some degree, his sanity. Kearns died in 2005, after finally winning more than $30 million from Ford and Chrysler.

The movie stars Greg Kinnear and opens in theaters nationwide on Oct. 3.

Source: New York Times