A MISTPROOF WINDSCREEN.
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ONE of the greatest troubles when driving a vehicle provided with a. windscreen is the obscuring of the screen during wet, foggy, or snowy weather. Many devices have been put on the market with a view to obviating this inconvenience. Most of them rely on some preparation which must be rubbed on to the glass andwhich prevents drips of water from gathering there. In others a squeegee device, hinged. to the top ofthe windscreen, is drawn down periodically by the driver, to clear away anything which obscures the glass, but few; if any, of these devices have proved entirely satisfactory.
We have recently received from the Mistproof screen Co., '150, Horseley 'Fields, Wolverhampton, particulars of the Mistproof 'windscreen plate, which iu intended. for fitting to any ordinary windscreen. The device consists of a piece of polished plate glass ins. long, 5i ins, deep, and in. thick, with bevelled and polished edges. Roles are drilled at each end for attaching the plate to the windscreen, and two further holes are drilled at one end for electric. terminals. Round this plate are glass bars of the same thickness as the plate and held to it by transparent cement, thus forming a glass frame. Inside this frame is a glass expansion bar, which is rather thinner than the bars of the frame, so that it is free to move slightly under the action of° rubber expansion blocks, the ends of the expansion bar and the two rubber blocks being carried in a recess in each of the longitudinal bars of the frame. The expansion baiand the frame bar at the other end are grooved to carry a wire, one end of which is fastened to the top terminal and the other to the bottom one, whilst the body of the wire is carried to and fro between the expansion bar and the grooved frame bar.
When fitted up, the complete device is attached to the wind.screen by means of transparent cement and two Xylonite bolts and nuts passed through the two holes already drilled in the frame and a further two drilled in the windscreen.
The terminals are connected up to the lighting batteries of the vehicle through the medium of a switch. When it is required to use the device, it is only necessary to switch the current on, and in a few seconds the air, which is confined 'between the frame and the wind-screen, becomes sufficiently warm • to maintain the windscreen and the plate free of mist or fog. It is claimed that it will even melt snow and evaporate rain so rapidly that they form little or no obstruction while driving. We understand that the device has been given a test of 12 months' duration under running conditions, and it has never been found necessary. to.lower the screen.