Caught an interesting film on TV by accident today "Flash of Genius"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_of_Genius_%28film%29
My first experience with intermittent windshield wipers was with a new '75 CDV I bought. I naturally thought it was a Cadillac innovation.
An interesting legal story. Technically, adding delay to early electric wipers is very simple. The motor gets current through an internal contact all the way around the wiper cycle, except at the park position. At that point the contact momentarily opens, but the motor keeps going if the manual switch is on bridging the internal contact. To do delay, just momentarily close the manual circuit every 30 seconds (or whatever); the wiper will run a cycle & stop, till pulsed again. I added such a circuit to my 62 Cutlass. Its not quite that simple on the disappearing wipers. Bruce Roe
I seem to recall that Popular Electronics magazine ran several articles on building a circuit to make your windshield wipers intermittent in the early 70s.
I'm pretty sure I also have a JC Whitn*y sold delay box in the attic (anyone want this?). Made my own to custom fit the 62. Not needed on my later disappearing wiper cars, which had available OEM delay sets. They added 2 wires to the circuit for the feature, later made a one wire version about 1981. Bruce Roe