Taps
When I was a kid, I had never really thought about a tap. It's just a thing we use to control the flow of water. You turn it on when you want some water, and turn it off when you are finished. In places where they have hot and cold water, you have two valves but the water comes out from the same spout. I thought every where in the world it would be like that. A given.
Then I went abroad where I've noticed peculiarity of local taps.
Take in England, a developed country but they still need 2 spouts for hot and cold water. At first I thought how could a supposedly modern country cant even use the same spout for their hot and cold water! Later I found out it's due to the difference in the pressures of hot and cold water.
In the Czech Republic the distance between the spout and the basin is great. You can put a bucket between them, come to think of it perhaps that's why they made it that way.
Nowadays each time I need to use a 'new tap', I have to think how do I use it. Do I need to turn it on? Do I need to press it? Do I need to pull it up? Do I need to activated with movement? Then after I finish do I need to turn it off?
I know innovation is supposed to make your life easier, but for crying out loud, I just want to use the tap and not do some puzzle because of it.
2 comments:
Here you hit upon of one little handicaps of modern life I've to cope with.
Now I have to admit it may be due to my age and becoming senile. But actually in public places - airports, restaurants, theatres, hetels etc- I sometimes happen to be unable to wash my hands after having been to the toilet. I can manage to get water out of the tap. Industrial designers seem to enjoy turning faucets, taps into sophisticated enigmas.
They should be prosecuted :)
Some actually help those with arthritis. But some of the new taps are too complicated for my liking. It's ok to design something 'weird' for select people, but installing them for public places is just plain cruel.
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