You know the feeling when some everyday product lets you down. 'I could have
designed this better myself', you think. But how many of us turn our thoughts
into actions? James Dyson does. He is a man who likes to make things work
better. With his research team he has developed products that have achieved
sales of over £3 billion worldwide.
Dyson Spares & Accessories's first product, the Sea Truck, was launched in
1970 while he was studying at the Royal College of Art. A few years later
came the award-winning Ballbarrow that can go where no wheelbarrow has ever
been before. Then there was the Wheelboat and the Trolleyball. Even the integral
hose, seen on most upright vacuum cleaners, is a Dyson invention.
A new idea
In 1978, James Dyson noticed how the air filter in the Ballbarrow spray-finishing
room was constantly clogging with powder particles (just like a vacuum cleaner
bag clogs with dust). So he designed and built an industrial cyclone tower, which
removed the powder particles by exerting centrifugal forces greater than 100,000
times those of gravity. Could the same principle work in a vacuum cleaner?
James Dyson set to work. 5 years and 5,127 prototypes later, the world's first
bagless vacuum cleaner from Dyson arrived.
The $2,000 vacuum cleaner
It may sound like taking coals to Newcastle, but James Dyson's bagless vacuum
cleaner was first sold in Japan, the home of high-tech products. Known as the
'G Force', it won the 1991 International Design Fair prize in Japan. The Japanese
were so impressed by its performance that the G Force became a status symbol,
selling for $2,000 a piece!
The first Dyson
Using income from the Japanese licence, James Dyson
decided to manufacture a new model under his own name
in Britain. In June 1993 he opened his research centre
and factory in Wiltshire, not far from his home, and
developed a machine that collected even finer particles
of dust (microscopic particles as small as cigarette
smoke). The result was the DCO1, the first in a range
of cleaners to give constant suction.
Dyson Dual Cyclone™
The Dual Cyclone™ system is the first breakthrough in
technology since the invention of the vacuum cleaner in
1901.
The traditional bag has been replaced by two cyclone
chambers which cannot clog with dust. After the Dyson's
outer cyclone has spun out the larger dust and dirt
particles, the inner cyclone accelerates the air still
further to remove the minute health-threatening particles.
James Dyson has proved a better product can be made at a
price people can afford. As a result the Dyson Dual
Cyclone™ became the fastest selling vacuum cleaner ever
to be made in the UK.