"Andy Wade" wrote in message
...
Lurch wrote:

They've not changed, in the olden days some were noisy, some weren't,
just like todays range of switches.

I suspect it's ceilings that have changed, not switches. Plasterboard
makes a good resonant sounding board whilst inch-thick lath and plaster
has more mass and more damping, and hence has much more sound deadening
effect.

I just went upstairs and unscrewed the cover of my 20-plus year old MK which
makes a fairly loud noise.
I had assumed it was the cylindrical housing that was resonating, but it
turns out the switch is mounted on a quite minimal and rigid escutcheon and
makes as much noise when operated in mid-air .

On the positive side the switch has operated faultlessly all 20 years I've
been in the house ...

.... maybe I could melt some pitch into the voids and make up a sorbothane
washer ...... probably needs a diffused OUTER surface since it's high
frequencies we're talking about .....

It was never a problem for me before and I had plans to use more than one in
the kitchen, but I will be now become obsessed with designing an alternative
!!

30 years ago in the summer holidays I helped a French pharmacist set up his
new shop and if I remember correctly all his lighting was switched by relays
in a big cabinet on the landing.