

Why did this invention -- obvious and trivial to implement -- take 30 years? - computator

Hand dryers in public washrooms are absolutely notorious
for taking forever to dry your hands.  But I'm now seeing
a new generation of hand dryers that blow the air really
hard and dry your hands in just 15 seconds.<p>What I can't understand is why such an obvious innovation
took 30 years to become available.<p>This is not like waiting for technology to catch
up. Surely, sufficiently powerful motors were available
30 years ago.<p>Simply asserting that "strong motors are expensive" doesn't
answer the question.  If expense were the determining
reason in the past, then no one would make/buy them today either.<p>I'm thinking that there must be a more complicated or
subtle business or social reason for why an obvious
improvement--taking the product from ridiculously awful
to quite acceptable--should take so long. But what?
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hugh3
Are you talking about the Dyson Airblade? I'm not actually convinced that they
work significantly better than the old-skool ones.

Still, as I understand it, making those tiny powerful fans is non-trivial, and
it was more a case of the invention driving the application instead of vice
versa. It was a case where Dyson (no relation to Freeman, tragically) started
building tiny powerful motors for their vacuum cleaners and then went looking
for other applications.

Or perhaps it's just a case of a "no hair on fire" demand. People just haven't
been spending the last thirty years thinking "Man, I wish this hand dryer
worked better", let alone "I wish I could pay a lot more for the dryers in my
public bathrooms so that my customers could dry their hands marginally
faster".

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mhd
What's the incentive for having a hand dryer at all? No towels to replace,
either for cost or maintenance reasons, I guess. This isn't exactly something
for the high paying clientele. So you have cheap, replaceable junk that every
pop & son contracter in the country can install or fix. High end locations
will have towels, maybe even with a real attendant handing them to you.

But in recent years, being environmentally friendly is a big deal. Having
fresh towels might be as expensive, but it seems like a waste. So suddenly
there's money available to companies who try to build a better dryer.

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nrli
The Max Hamburger chain in Sweden uses the Dyson Airblade. Max is a very
innovative fast food company. They put how much CO2 your burger costs on the
main menu for example.

The Dyson Airblade fits right in with the image they are trying to present.
Clean, modern, efficient and cool.

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samratjp
If you think optimal (in your perspective) hand dryers took this long,
contrast this against the wheeled luggage, that took quite a long time to
catch on ([http://www.travelproluggageblog.com/2010/06/luggage/the-
hist...](http://www.travelproluggageblog.com/2010/06/luggage/the-history-of-
rolling-luggage/)) as late as 1989!

Perhaps, it's just as conceivable that regardless of how well the dryers
worked, consumers could have just wanted the option for paper towels. And even
if the dryers are fast, I am sure the line doesn't help. Of course, I am sure
the ladies room would have even worse time with just one effective albeit
expensive dryer because of the already nasty wait times on average.

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fragmede
Rough price I can find online for 'normal' hand dryers is ~$200 bucks. The
Dyson Airblade you're referencing is $1,400. That price includes the cost of
non-trival engineering (and a good bit of marketing). Sounds like the setup
for a great pitch.

Hi, we're going to revolutionize hand-drying with an hand dryer. Oh yeah, and
it's going to be super expensive because we need to use quality parts for it
to work well. So, uh, you interested in funding us?

Took 30-years for someone to front the cash to do the development.

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indrax
>Simply asserting that "strong motors are expensive" doesn't answer the
question. If expense were the determining reason in the past, then no one
would make/buy them today either.

This assumes that stronger motors aren't cheaper today than they were,
relative to weaker ones. I think that there are also advances in robots and
toys that it seems to me should have been possible decades ago (even with
slower processors)

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photon_off
I hate those things because they are so noisy. I haven't tried the AirBlade
yet, but I have tried the "Xcelerator". It's so loud that I'd cover my ears if
I weren't busy drying my hands. Also, if I splash water on my face; how am I
supposed to dry it?

I much prefer paper towel to the air driers.

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anamax
> If expense were the determining reason in the past, then no one would
> make/buy them today either.

The relative cost of "much better" may have gone down.

Someone may be unwilling to pay 3x to move from mediocre to adequate yet be
willing to pay 3x to move from mediocre to excellent.

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baguasquirrel
Who goes to a restaurant or an airport to use the washrooms?

Put another way, how many manufacturers of coffins are there in the US? We'd
rather not think of such things.

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wrs
Mitsubishi introduced something very similar in 1993:
<http://www.mitsubishijettowel.com/>

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mixmax
In hindsight most inventions are obvious.

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damoncali
Because the benefit to the owner of the building (the one paying for it) is
almost zero.

