"I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum... There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one."
James Dyson, Fast Company magazine (May 2007)
In 1978, designer James Dyson (b. 1947) noticed that the suction of his vacuum cleaner diminished as the bag started to fill with dust. He realized that a system in which dust is siphoned into a bin, rather than retained by a filter, would maintain the suction of the appliance. Five years and some 5,127 prototypes later, Dyson had invented the technology that would be the cornerstone of the iconic Dyson vacuum cleaner.
James Dyson studied at the Royal College of Art, where he began a career in design that would lead him to develop many unique ideas. However, his big breakthrough came seven years after he began his research into developing filtering processes for vacuum cleaners.
The cleaning power of a Dyson vacuum cleaner lies in the process of cyclonic separation. By spinning a column of air, dust particles are sucked up and drawn to the insides of the container, as the centrifugal forces exerted increase their mass by hundreds of thousands of times. These particles sink to the base of the container and are collected in a "bin." The air, free of dust particles, is released back into the environment. Importantly, the cyclonic system means that in theory the cleaner never loses suction and never needs any new bags or filters.
In 1986, Dyson secured an agreement with a Japanese firm to market his product as the G-Force, the design of which won him many awards. Within seven years, the first Dyson-produced DC01 model reached U.K. shelves and became the quickest selling vacuum cleaner, not to mention an iconic design. Today, Dyson has branched out to offer a variety of cleaning products based around the original concept, including handheld vacuum cleaners and two-drum washing machines.
