WILLIAM Thomson’s letter (October 20) on providing an environmentally friendly form of private transport, brought back memories of what my late husband used to call “another of your daft ideas”. Most of them occurred when we were going home to Skye after a theatre visit in Inverness.

Glen Shiel was a very dark place years ago, before all the reflecting road furniture was put in place, and I had to keep a look-out for the glimmering eyeballs of road-side deer. Any oncoming cars, which did not have dipped headlights, were a real pain. I suggested that perhaps cars should have a light detector at the front of the vehicle, which would temporarily dip the full-beam lights of the approaching car. “Good idea,” said Jim, “design it”. If I am not mistaken I think that such a device now exists.

One idea which was not so daft was when I asked him, in 1960, to design something which would retract the electric cleaner cable into the cylinder so that I didn’t fall over it so often. I wish that we had patented that idea. It wasn’t such a daft one.

Thelma Edwards,

Old Comrades Hall,

Hume, Kelso.