Saturday 14 June 2008

The world's worst invention

I am all in favour of saving the environment. (For those who don't know, the whole planet is the environment and no, you cannot tow a damaged oil tanker outside the environment as one Australian politician is alleged to have suggested.)

Anyway, as I was saying, I am as green as the next person, or I try to be. But one 'environmentally friendly' creation of the 20th century qualifies in my book as the world's worst invention. The air blowing hand dryer in public toilets.



It may be clean, it may be tidy, it may save on waste paper and it may not use much electricity but it also does not dry! After ten minutes of standing there with wet hands you still have wet hands... And have you ever tried drying your face under one? The contortions you have to go through are quite likely to get you arrested in a public toilet. Some of them do have a flap which can be adjusted to point up not down but even then half of them aim at your middle, not your face. Carrying kitchen roll around in your pocket all the time rather defeats the object and if you try using toilet roll it tends to fall to pieces. Unless there is a mirror (which many Gents toilets lack) you walk out with pieces of loo roll stuck to your chin.

Can someone, in this new century, please invent a replacement.

1 comment:

  1. In terms of drying ability the driers used in many airports these days dry your hands in approx 10 seconds. In the process they give your skin a complete work-out. Loose skin just disappears! The face is a problem though. I imagine that if these could turn to do your face they would blow your eyes out of their sockets. Dyson have come up with a completely new hand-drier which also works very well - for hands. See http://www.dysonairblade.co.uk/?sicampaignppc=google&sicampaigntopic=airblade I came across it in the superloos in Glasgow's Central Station a few days ago. It does not, however, solve the face-drying problem.

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