A less painful blow - Telegraph That most domestically welcome of innovators, Sir James Dyson, is now perfecting an invention that will not make much of a noise. It is a quiet hairdryer. Once experienced, it will surely be prized. A hairdryer deployed in the auditory regions without an accompanying roar will bring a similar sense of relief as a switched-off lawnmower, a kettle that has stopped interrupting the news headlines, air-conditioning that has taken a break from its cycle of humming and rattling, or even the fridge whenever it relinquishes its strange nocturnal spasms of pumping and exhalation. The worst noise unnecessarily endured by mankind is just getting into its annual stride - the leaf-blower. When Adam delved and Eve span, the autumn leaves of the Garden of Eden were no doubt decorously gathered up into a pre-lapsarian bonfire. Even the Fall brought no immediate maelstrom of noise to the recycling of fig leaves. It is a cruel novelty of our own day to make gardeners don ear-protectors while wielding their noise-machines to dragoon fallen leaves into ranks. For us bystanders and our dogs, out for a quiet walk, it is like taking a turn through an aero-engine test facility. The difference between this aggressive row and the scritch-scratch of a leaf-rake over the ground is the difference between a noise and a sound. Once our hair has been quietly dried, this is a matter that urgently requires Sir James's attention.