Sir James Dyson OM CBE FRS FREng[2] (born 2 May 1947) is a British inventor, industrial design engineer and founder of the Dyson company. He is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2017, his net worth is £7.8 billion.[3] He served as the Provost of the Royal College of Art from August 2011 to July 2017,[4][5] and opened a new University on Dyson's Wiltshire Campus in September 2017.[6]
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Early inventions
3 Vacuum cleaners
4 Other inventions
5 Research and development
6 Europe
6.1 Pro-Europe
6.2 Pro-Brexit
6.3 European Court of Justice
7 James Dyson Foundation
8 Honours and awards
9 Personal life
10 References
11 External links
Early life and education
James Dyson was born 2 May 1947 in Cromer, Norfolk, one of three children. He was educated at Gresham's School,[1] an independent boarding school in Holt, Norfolk, from 1956 to 1965, when his father died of cancer.[7] He excelled at long distance running: "I was quite good at it, not because I was physically good, but because I had more determination. I learnt determination from it."[8] He spent one year (1965–1966) at the Byam Shaw School of Art, and then studied furniture and interior design at the Royal College of Art (1966–1970) before moving into engineering.
Early inventions
Dyson helped design the Sea Truck in 1970 while studying at the Royal College of Art. His first original invention, the Ballbarrow, was a modified version of a wheelbarrow using a ball instead of a wheel. This was featured on the BBC's Tomorrow's World television programme. Dyson stuck with the idea of a ball, inventing the Trolleyball, a trolley that launched boats. He then designed the Wheelboat,[9] which could travel at speeds of 64 kilometres per hour (40 mph) on both land and water.
Vacuum cleaners
DC07 bagless Dyson vacuum cleaner
In the late 1970s, Dyson had the idea of using cyclonic separation to create a vacuum cleaner that would not lose suction as it picked up dirt. He became frustrated with his Hoover Junior's diminishing performance: the dust bag pores kept becoming clogged with dust thus reducing suction.[10] The cyclone idea came from a sawmill that used cyclone technology (qv. History of Dyson Ltd).[11]
Partly supported by his wife's salary as an art teacher, and after five years and about 5,127 prototypes, Dyson launched the "G-Force" cleaner in 1983.[12] However, no manufacturer or distributor would handle his product in the UK, as it would have disturbed the valuable market for replacement dust bags, so Dyson launched it in Japan through catalogue sales.[13] Manufactured in bright pink, the G-Force sold for the equivalent of £2,000. It won the 1991 International Design Fair Prize in Japan. He filed a series of patents for his dual cyclone vacuum cleaner EP0037674 in 1980.
After his invention was rejected by the major manufacturers, Dyson set up his own manufacturing company, Dyson Ltd. In June 1993, he opened a research centre and factory in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.
Dyson's breakthrough in the UK market came more than ten years after the initial idea, through a TV advertising campaign in which it was emphasised that, unlike most of its rivals, the Dyson vacuum did not require the continuing purchase of replacement bags. At that time, the UK market for disposable cleaner bags was £100 million. The slogan "say goodbye to the bag" proved more attractive to the buying public than a previous emphasis on the suction efficiency that its technology delivers. Ironically, the previous step change in domestic vacuum cleaner design had been the introduction of the disposable bag – users being prepared to pay extra for the convenience. The Dyson Dual Cyclone became the fastest-selling vacuum cleaner ever made in the UK, and outsold those of some of the companies that rejected his idea, becoming one of the most popular brands in the UK.[14] In early 2005, it was reported that Dyson cleaners had become the market leaders in the United States by value (though not by number of units sold).
Dyson licensed the technology in North America from 1986 to 2001 to Fantom Technologies, after which Dyson entered the market directly.
Following his success, other major manufacturers began to market their own cyclonic vacuum cleaners. In 1999, Dyson sued Hoover (UK) for patent infringement. The High Court ruled that Hoover had deliberately copied a fundamental part of his patented designs in making its Triple Vortex bagless vacuum cleaner range.[15] Hoover agreed to pay damages of £4 million.
In 2005, Dyson incorporated the wheel ball from his Ballbarrow concept into a vacuum cleaner, creating the Dyson Ball. This ball, rather than the static wheels on existing vacuums, enabled it to become more steerable, which was more useful for navigating around obstacles and corners.
In mid-2014, Dyson personally appeared in Tokyo to introduce his "360 Eye" robotic vacuum cleaner. Dyson's initial entry into this market segment features 360° scanning and mapping for navigation, cyclonic dust separation, a custom-designed digital motor for high suction, tank treads for traction, a full-width brushroll bar, and user interface via a free iOS or Android app.[16]
James Dyson, Fast Company magazine (May 2007), in an interview, asserted the importance of failure in ones life, "I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That’s how I came up with a solution. So I don’t mind failure. I’ve always thought that schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they’ve had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failures to get there is probably more creative."[17]
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