Hcfyk

I read this large hardback book maybe ten years ago from a UK library. I think it was eco sci fi (not sure about that) . The ecological disaster was possibly just the global warming thing of a few years ago. I'm not 100% it was an eco story. .... but a little voice at the back of my brain says yes.

All I can really remember is this inventor who has an idea for using a tiny thing that vibrates glass and it removes moisture. He patents this and becomes mega wealthy because windscreen wipers are no longer needed, this is easily fitted to all cars.

Later in the book (still no memories of the main plot!) this guy is back again, he has a big workshop full of high tech equipment and basically potters about waiting for inspiration.

One day he's off to a meeting but is caught in a traffic jam, idly he's watching some window cleaners on a skyscraper hoist and he gets idea two. He questions his chauffeur to confirm that, ever since the rain repellent device was fitted, the driver had never had to wash the windscreen either.

He builds his second mega fortune by getting his patented device installed on all high rise buildings so their glass never needs cleaned.

This is a minor part IIRC of the main book but very distinctive.

In Arthur C Clarke's The Ghost from the Grand Banks, one of the main characters invents the Wave Wiper - a device that not only kept water off a car windscreen, but dirt off of office windows, through some kind of surface layer vibration.

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The Wave Wiper is one short chapter in the book - but as I read the chapter, it almost matches your question with regards to the car windscreen, and then the office building windows making the inventors true fortune - which is only a setup for the rest of the story.

Although, I'm not sure the rest of the book counts as an eco thriller... I'll have to read it again. The Y2K thing is mentioned - and since the book is from 1990, that could have been the "disaster" in the book.

I don't recall this invention, but this overall seems similar to Dean Ing's novel, The Heavy Lifters -- the protagonist is an inventor whose life purpose is to remove heavy freight movement from the highways people travel on. He makes himself a billionaire with other inventions, but in the end achieves his goal by creating hybrid dirigibles -- using a combination of static (gas) and dynamic (wing-type) lift to move heavy loads at lower cost than trucks or railroads (hence nearly eliminating the surface transport). In the end, a combination of linear induction catapult and laser boost is seen sending a payload to orbit without the expense and hazard of a rocket.