Ice Scrapers?

[Bloo]

What does a Prewar ice scraper look like? It just occurred to me the other day I have never seen a really old one. Were they advertising giveaways before the war like after? A quick look on Ebay produced nothing that looked like it could have existed before WW2, except a couple that had refrigerator brands on them. They looked as though meant for scraping your freezer out.

 

Its 1934. You have a brand new closed car with a hot water heater in the passenger footwell. It's 18F outside. How do you get the ice off of your windshield?

 

[Terry Bond]

Well, let me take a stab at this - first of all, I believe that basic kitchen utensils were probably first adapted for use.  With flat windshields being used, it was relatively simple to use any available object to scrape the ice off. 

 

Windshield defrosters that could be adapted to cars long before the factory installed them were somewhat helpful in cleaning windshields and keeping them clean. Some were electrically heated and others used hot air from a car heater or even engine or manifold heat that was directed to the interior of the car and then by flexible tubing to the windshield. 

 

A soft blade was needed though because metal would scratch the glass more easily, so at some point as plastic moved beyond the bakelite stage and provided a more flexible and break-resistant material, the injection molded scraper became commonplace.  I believe this chance to a more usable plastic material occurred in the mid to later 1930s.  I've seen some with wooden handles and rubber blades but these were more like squeegies than typical ice scrapers. 

 

A quick look at patents shows that in the 1960s patents were issued for differing designs of ice scrapers specifically designed for use on automobiles.  There are hundreds of different styles, shapes, sizes and configurations ranging from simple blade types, to even cone shaped scrapers.  Like any other product, it was only natural that advertising on them quickly began to appear.  Local gas stations, auto parts stores, etc. sold their own branded variations. 

 

I'd think it's pretty difficult to find a pre-war ice scraper but I'll take a look through some of my early auto accessory catalogs to see if any are advertised. I have a collection of over 100 of them dating back to the early 1900s.   Will post again later if I find any examples.

Terry

 

[Bloo]

Thanks for the great response! Now that you mention it I think maybe I have seen a device about like your first picture before. That could be the explanation, no good plastic for a scraper early on. :)

[TerryB]

That first one would show up at times usually with the rubber feet totally useless.  If you want to bring your collection up to the 21st century, show a pic of a credit card!  That was the ice scraper of choice when a rental car was missing its scraper.

[Mark Wetherbee]

54 minutes ago, TerryB said:

That first one would show up at times usually with the rubber feet totally useless.  If you want to bring your collection up to the 21st century, show a pic of a credit card!  That was the ice scraper of choice when a rental car was missing its scraper.

Another great thing about retirement and living in the south!

[Terry Bond]

21 minutes ago, Mark Wetherbee said:

Another great thing about retirement and living in the south!

Right on Mark, we weren't born in the South but got here as quick as we could!   Our grand daughter got us an ice scraper with a long handle and a snow brush on it a few years ago so we could take it up to PA for our December AACA National Awards meeting.  It hangs on the garage wall and I've actually had people ask what it was.

Terry

[Bloo]

44 minutes ago, Terry Bond said:

Our grand daughter got us an ice scraper with a long handle and a snow brush on it a few years ago so we could take it up to PA for our December AACA National Awards meeting.  It hangs on the garage wall and I've actually had people ask what it was.

 

Those were the default in eastern WA in the 60s-80s. I could probably find one or two around here, but the blades would be shot.

[Mark Wetherbee]

11 hours ago, Bloo said:

 

Those were the default in eastern WA in the 60s-80s. I could probably find one or two around here, but the blades would be shot.

I’m sure I still brought one with me from Maine But they are the heavy duty ones... that credit card crack brought back some very unpleasant memories of business trips when I was still working...

 

I think Terry might be right about those electric defrosters, and early cars with plate glass could be done by a putty knife as well as the White Rose scraper he showed. Most of the plastic giveaways I’ve seen were not only postwar, but late 50’s on through. Another winter thing that was prevalent in New England barns was a kerosene engine stove that you lit and hung from the radiator support rod, I’m sure they were the cause of many garage fires...

[Tom99]

Here is a 1958 Dodge Dealer give a way;

 

[Bloo]

Thanks for all the responses!