Modern residential fans

At long last we are having a heat wave in Western Washington. It has been over 70° for 3 days in a row!

In anticipation of this summer's toasty temps, I bought a fan from Home Depot two weeks ago. One out of five buttons did not work right out of the box, so I took it back. Went with the sure thing and ordered a fan from Costco.

As a child on the farm, I remember looking for a fan and finding one from the 40's or 50's that

was all metal. The steel fan blades looked like they designed to star in a gory horror movie. The fan shroud mesh was not small enough to stop fingers from accidentally being chopped up into tiny bits if the fan was accidentally grabbed while it was running.

My new fan is a turbine design that looks like a 4' tall vented cylinder. It came with a remote control and a baby 14" turbine fan. Both fans have multiple power settings and oscillate. They are incredibly quiet and deliver a soft steady breeze. Almost everything is made out of plastic.

I am grateful for the technological & manufacturing progress made since my grandmother was born. 100+ years ago, nobody had an electric table fan for hot days. Now we can get remote controlled fans delivered to our door with a couple clicks of a mouse. Compared with, say, the changes in phones in that same time, fans have not changed so much. Nonetheless, they are a cool idea on those blistering 73° days like today! Watch out Phoenix, here I come! NOT!