James Dyson hated the dust-filled bags of traditional vacuum cleaners and their diminishing suction power over time. The bagless vacuum cleaner he invented as a solution to this situation became the start of a global company.
He was born in 1947 in Norfolk, England. He studied furniture design and interior decoration at the Royal College of Art. In 1970, before graduating, he designed the Sea Truck, a high-speed landing craft. In 1978, he invented the Ballbarrow wheelbarrow, which contained an inflatable ball instead of a wheel. The peculiarity of this wheelbarrow was that it did not trample the grass. The idea of a cyclone-based bagless vacuum cleaner, one of Dyson's greatest inventions, came to his mind at this time.
Dyson noticed that during Ballbarrow's production, the air filter in the painting department was clogged with dust particles and the painting process took a long time because of this. To find a solution to this problem, he developed an industrial-sized cyclonic tower that separates dust particles from the air by centrifugal force blasting them 100,000 times stronger than gravity. He wondered if the same logic would work in a vacuum cleaner. He rolled up his sleeves to bring this idea to life. He developed 5127 prototypes over the course of five years. He finally achieved his goal and invented the world's first bagless vacuum cleaner.
Dyson's invention did not receive the attention he expected in his home country. He licensed the patent for his invention to a small Japanese firm. Soon after, this invention became very popular in Japan. In the following years, he started working in England to produce a new model bearing his own name. He opened his own research center and factory in 1993 and developed a device that can collect very fine particles such as cigarette smoke and microscopic dust grains. Thanks to this technology, which he calls the Dyson Root Cyclone System, traditional dust bags have been replaced by two cyclone chambers that can trap microscopic particles while separating large dust and dirt particles in the air. As a result, the Dyson Root Cyclone has become the best-selling vacuum cleaner in Western Europe.
Although difficult to visualize, Dyson also invented a fanless fan. With this invention, which looks like something out of a science fiction movie and is called an air multiplier, a powerful and cooling effect can be created without the propellers.
James Dyson was knighted in England for the benefits he brought to human life. Saying that his next goal is to develop a smart robot that helps with housework, Dyson seems to continue to shape the future.