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How Complicated Can It Be?
By Louis Rushmore
How complicated can it be to dry one’s hands in a public bathroom? Years ago, I had a pet peeve that paper towel dispensers in public restrooms were often so high on the wall that by the time I turned the little metal crank enough to unroll enough paper to use, the water had already run down to my elbows. Since then, and having traveled in foreign countries as well, sometimes the muse is to find the restroom at all! Often abroad, though, the accepted manner for drying one’s hands is still air drying – swinging the hands through the open air. Other times, tissues or toilet paper is offered, which immediately upon contact with water clings to the hands like stringy paste.
Occasionally, I have to stop and evaluate the sink faucets, soap dispenser and hand dryer to figure out how each device is used in a particular public restroom. When I was growing up, it wasn’t that complicated; turn the handle on the faucet (or faucets were hot water available, too, and you wished to use it), apply the bar soap to the hands and dry after rinsing on the cloth towel nearby. Today, the faucet may be automated, if one can find the exact spot the little eye is watching and keep one’s hands in the right place. Today, the soap dispenser may be automated as well, if one can figure out how to make the little fellow part with some lather. Today, towel dispensers or air dryers may be automated (see “little eye” reference earlier).
The other day I found myself in a public bathroom, and I had made it all the way past the sink and soap, only to stand baffled before the paper towel dispenser. I almost had to make like an Asia hand dryer and swing my hands through the air. Finally, I figured it out. What confused me was that there was no crank; there was no little eye to automatically roll some paper down for use; there was no button to push; there was no handle to pump. Automate everything else in the restroom, sure, but in the case of the towel rack, just reach into the face of it and pull off whatever length of towel one desires. I think I have run completely out of intuitive!
Why, Why, Oh Why automate the water and not the soap dispenser or dryer and towels, or automate and not automate various devices in various combinations. Sanitary considerations, that’s why any of it is automated? I don’t believe that for a moment, especially when one has to touch the door handle to get in or out; all it takes is just one person to bypass the sinks, soap and hand dryer or towels and head for the door to negate the supposed benefits of automating something in a public restroom, and we have all seen those unhygienic bozos. How complicated can it be to wash and dry one’s hands in a public bathroom?
