In 1908, Newcastle United fan Captain Gladstone Adams (16 May 1880 – 26 July 1966), drove his car to London to watch Newcastle play against Wolves in the FA Cup Final (which Newcastle unfortunately lost 3 – 1 ). On his way home Gladstone had to keep stopping to clear the snow from his windscreen, which led to his invention of the windscreen wiper, which he patented in 1911 with patent agents Sloan & Lloyd Barnes of Liverpool. Unfortunately his version of the windscreen wiper was never manufactured, though you can still see his original prototype in The Discovery Museum at Newcastle. Captain Gladstone also went on to invent the sliding rowing seat, and the trafficator, which was the forerunner to the car indicator lights. In World War I, Gladstone was a photograph reconnaissance officer, and one of his missions was to prove that Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron) had been shot down and killed, and then arrange his burial.
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