James Dyson

James Dyson

James Dyson is a British industrialist whose claim to fame is the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner. Dyson’s invention helped revolutionize the vacuum cleaners along with other appliances in the world.

Dyson was born on 2nd May 1947 in Cromer, England. He was a long distance runner. Dyson stated that he learned the quality of determination from it. He went to the Byam Shaw School of Art for a year after which he did courses in interior design and furniture design from the Royal College of Art from 1966 to 1970. While he was there he got his first idea of using cyclonic separation in a vacuum cleaner so that it would not lose its suction quality as it picked up dirt. Dyson was very disappointed from his Hoover Junior that continuously got clogged up reducing its suction after every use. After five years of creating several prototypes, he finally launched the ‘G-Force’ cleaner in 1983. To his disappointment no manufacturer or distributor was interested in his idea. Therefore he decided to launch his product in Japan.

The G-force was manufactured in a pink color and was sold for £2000. It won the International Design Fair in Japan. Dyson got this technology patented in 1986. After not getting a positive response from the major manufacturers, he decided to establish his own manufacturing company in England. He got his first breakthrough from his television advertisement that had the slogan ‘say goodbye to the bag’ a quality that attracted customers more than the efficient suction quality of the product. But Dyson was more than happy as long as his product was gaining popularity. The Dyson Dual Cyclone turned out to be the fastest selling vacuum cleaner in the United Kingdom. When he launched his product in America in 2002 it was an instant success and in just three years managed to capture 20% of the market.

After Dyson’s success other companies started selling vacuum cleaners with the cyclonic technology. As Dyson had the patent for the technology he sued Hoover UK for patent infringement for which he got £5 million. Dyson developed his vacuum cleaners by inventing new technologies such as the Ballbarrow concept in his Dyson Ball which made the cleaner more maneuverable. In 2006 he launched the Dyson Airblade which was a hand dryer for public washrooms. In 2009 Dyson presented the ‘Air Multiplier’ technology which was the first real innovation in fans in more than 125 years. He expanded to make more products like the washing machine ‘ContraRotator’ however this was not commercially successful.
Dyson received the ‘Prince Phillip Designers Prize’ in 1997. He was also honored with the ‘Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran Award’ in 2000. The same year the University of Bath gave Dyson an honorary doctorate degree in Engineering. He was selected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2005 and was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2007 New Year Honors. He has been the provost of the Royal College of Art since 2011.