The person who invented taps that only work when you press
down on them is on my list.
They’re the bathroom-fitting equivalent to the chocolate
teapot: a device with no rhyme or reason. Their inoperability suggests
they were intended as some sort of ablutionary tax dodge, or designed for a futuristic
three-handed race.
(...which isn't a school sports day event.)
I understand that they’re meant to save water. The
motivation behind their design is ecologically sound; a tap that’s been left
running is at Number Three of my Five Least Favourite Things to Walk in on
in a Public Toilet. They may have pushed environmentalism
a little too far, however, by preventing people from washing their hands at all.
You can’t fit a decent scrub into a one-second time limit
(something my nan always said to me). You either have to wash a hand at a
time - adopting a strange one-hand-clapping / hamster-massaging motion - or ask
the person at the next sink to hold it down for you. Be sure to make it clear you're talking about the tap; you don't want to get a reputation.