James Dyson
Encyclopedia
Sir
James Dyson (born 2 May 1947) is a British industrial designer 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
. His net worth
in 2011 was said to be £1.45 billion
.
, Norfolk
, England, one of three children of Alec Dyson. Dyson was educated at Gresham's School
, Holt, Norfolk, from 1956 to 1965, where he excelled in 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." He spent one year (1965–1966) at the Byam Shaw School of Art (now part of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
), and then studied furniture and interior design
at the Royal College of Art
(1966–1970) before moving into engineering
.
, Dyson's first product, was launched in 1970 while he was at the Royal College of Art. His next product, 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 which his brother had thought of, inventing the Trolleyball, a trolley that launched boats. He then designed the Wheelboat, which could travel at speeds of 64 kilometres per hour (39.8 mph) on both land and water.
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: dust kept clogging the dust bag, reducing suction. The cyclone idea came from the spray-finishing room's air filter in his Ballbarrow factory.
Partly supported by his wife's salary as an art teacher, and after five years and many prototypes, Dyson launched the "G-Force" cleaner in 1983. However, no manufacturer or distributor would handle his product in the UK, as it would disturb the valuable market for replacement dust bags, so Dyson launched it in Japan through catalogue sales. Manufactured in bright pink, the G-Force sold for £2,000 (British equivalent). It won the 1991 International Design Fair prize in Japan. He obtained his first U.S. patent
on the idea in 1986 .
After failing to sell his invention to the major manufacturers, Dyson set up his own manufacturing company. In June 1993, he opened his research centre and factory in Malmesbury
, Wiltshire
.
Dyson's breakthrough in the UK market, more than 10 years after the initial idea, was through a TV advertising campaign that emphasized that, unlike most of its rivals, it 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. The product now outsells those of some of the companies that rejected his idea and has become one of the most popular brands in the UK. 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).
Following his success, other major manufacturers began to market their own cyclonic vacuum cleaners. Dyson sued Hoover
UK for patent
infringement and won around $5 million in damages.
In a highly controversial and bitterly opposed move, his manufacturing plant moved from England to Malaysia, for economic reasons and because of difficulty acquiring land for expansion, leaving 800 workers redundant in 2002. The company's headquarters and research facilities remain in Malmesbury. Dyson later stated that because of the cost savings from transferring production to Malaysia, he was able to invest in research and development
at Malmesbury, but further redundancies at Malmesbury were subsequently announced in 2008.
In 2005, Dyson incorporated the wheel ball from his Ballbarrow concept into a vacuum cleaner, creating the Dyson Ball, claiming it to be more maneuverable.
In 2002, Dyson created a realisation of the optical illusion
s depicted in the lithographs of Dutch
artist M. C. Escher
. Engineer Derek Phillips was able to accomplish the task after a year of work, creating a water sculpture in which the water appears to flow up to the tops of four ramps arranged in a square, before cascading to the bottom of the next ramp. The creation titled Wrong Garden, was displayed at the Chelsea Flower Show
in the spring of 2003. The illusion is accomplished with water containing air bubbles pumped through a chamber underneath the transparent glass ramps to a slit at the top from which the bulk of the water cascades down. This makes it appear that the water is flowing up, when actually a small amount of water diverted from the slit at the top flows back down the ramps in a thin layer.
In October 2006 Dyson launched the Dyson Airblade
, a fast hand dryer
.
Dyson's most recent addition is a fan without external blades, which he calls the "Air Multiplier".
Dyson paid £15 million for Dodington Park
, a 300 acres (1.2 km²) Georgian
estate in Gloucestershire
, close to Chipping Sodbury
. He and his wife also have a £3 million chateau
in France, and a town house in Chelsea, London
. The Sunday Times Rich List 2008
estimated his fortune at £1.1 billion, while Forbes estimates it at £1 billion.
Dyson was chair of the board of trustees of the Design Museum
, "the first in the world to showcase design of the manufactured object", until suddenly resigning in September 2004,
stating the museum had "become a style showcase" instead of "upholding its mission to encourage serious design of the manufactured object".
as well as medical and scientific research in partnership with charities. It achieves this by funding different resources such as the "Education box", a box filled with activities for a school to use as a teaching aid. The Foundation loans the boxes to schools for four weeks, free of charge. They are suitable for Key stage
4 and above and can be used in universities. The Education box enables students to take apart and examine a Dyson DC22 Telescope vacuum cleaner. In addition,, a school is allowed to retain a James Dyson Foundation teacher pack, and a copy of Genius Of Britain, a Channel 4
TV series featuring James Dyson himself, and design engineering posters. Other resources are also available.
Another way the Foundation inspires young minds is with the James Dyson Awards. This is an international design award that "celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers". It is organised and run by the James Dyson Foundation Charitable Trust and is open to graduates (or recent graduates) in the fields of product design, industrial design and engineering.
. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor
in the New Year's Honours December 2006.
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
James Dyson (born 2 May 1947) is a British industrial designer and founder of the Dyson company.
He is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner
Vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner, commonly referred to as a "vacuum," is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal...
, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation
Cyclonic separation
Cyclonic separation is a method of removing particulates from an air, gas or liquid stream, without the use of filters, through vortex separation. Rotational effects and gravity are used to separate mixtures of solids and fluids...
. His net worth
Net worth
In business, net worth is the total assets minus total outside liabilities of an individual or a company. For a company, this is called shareholders' preference and may be referred to as book value. Net worth is stated as at a particular year in time...
in 2011 was said to be £1.45 billion
1000000000 (number)
1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001.In scientific notation, it is written as 109....
.
Early life
Dyson was born in CromerCromer
Cromer is a coastal town and civil parish in north Norfolk, England. The local government authority is North Norfolk District Council, whose headquarters is in Holt Road in the town. The town is situated 23 miles north of the county town, Norwich, and is 4 miles east of Sheringham...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, England, one of three children of Alec Dyson. Dyson was educated at Gresham's School
Gresham's School
Gresham’s School is an independent coeducational boarding school in Holt in North Norfolk, England, a member of the HMC.The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free grammar school for forty boys, following King Henry VIII's dissolution of the Augustinian priory at Beeston Regis...
, Holt, Norfolk, from 1956 to 1965, where he excelled in 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." He spent one year (1965–1966) at the Byam Shaw School of Art (now part of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. The school has an outstanding international reputation, and is considered one of the world's leading art and design institutions...
), and then studied furniture and interior design
Interior design
Interior design describes a group of various yet related projects that involve turning an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities are to take place there. An interior designer is someone who conducts such projects...
at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
(1966–1970) before moving into engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
.
First inventions
The Sea TruckSea Truck
The Rotork Sea Truck is a flat-hulled, high-speed watercraft, similar to a small landing craft. Made from fibreglass, they may be used to land vehicles without jetties or harbour facilities. They were designed partially by James Dyson in the 1970s, as part of his final year's project at the Royal...
, Dyson's first product, was launched in 1970 while he was at the Royal College of Art. His next product, the Ballbarrow
Ballbarrow
The Ballbarrow was a type of wheelbarrow designed by James Dyson and released in 1974 in the UK. It featured a moulded plastic hopper on a steel frame and a spherical plastic wheel. This benefited all-terrain use as the ball did not dig into the ground like a conventional wheel and steering was...
, was a modified version of a wheelbarrow
Wheelbarrow
A wheelbarrow is a small hand-propelled vehicle, usually with just one wheel, designed to be pushed and guided by a single person using two handles to the rear, or by a sail to push the ancient wheelbarrow by wind. The term "wheelbarrow" is made of two words: "wheel" and "barrow." "Barrow" is a...
using a ball instead of a wheel. This was featured on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's "Tomorrow's World
Tomorrow's World
Tomorrow's World was a long-running BBC television series, showcasing new developments in the world of science and technology. First aired on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003.- Content :...
" television programme. Dyson stuck with the idea of a ball which his brother had thought of, inventing the Trolleyball, a trolley that launched boats. He then designed the Wheelboat, which could travel at speeds of 64 kilometres per hour (39.8 mph) on both land and water.
Vacuum cleaners
Cyclonic separation
Cyclonic separation is a method of removing particulates from an air, gas or liquid stream, without the use of filters, through vortex separation. Rotational effects and gravity are used to separate mixtures of solids and fluids...
to create a vacuum cleaner
Vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner, commonly referred to as a "vacuum," is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal...
that would not lose suction as it picked up dirt. He became frustrated with his Hoover
The Hoover Company
The Hoover Company started out as an American floor care manufacturer based in North Canton, Ohio. It also established a major base in the United Kingdom and for most of the early-and-mid-20th century, it dominated the electric vacuum cleaner industry, to the point where the "hoover" brand name...
Junior’s diminishing performance: dust kept clogging the dust bag, reducing suction. The cyclone idea came from the spray-finishing room's air filter in his Ballbarrow factory.
Partly supported by his wife's salary as an art teacher, and after five years and many prototypes, Dyson launched the "G-Force" cleaner in 1983. However, no manufacturer or distributor would handle his product in the UK, as it would disturb the valuable market for replacement dust bags, so Dyson launched it in Japan through catalogue sales. Manufactured in bright pink, the G-Force sold for £2,000 (British equivalent). It won the 1991 International Design Fair prize in Japan. He obtained his first U.S. patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
on the idea in 1986 .
After failing to sell his invention to the major manufacturers, Dyson set up his own manufacturing company. In June 1993, he opened his research centre and factory in Malmesbury
Malmesbury
Malmesbury is a market town and civil parish located in the southern Cotswolds in the county of Wiltshire, England. Historically Malmesbury was a centre for learning and home to Malmesbury Abbey...
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
.
Dyson's breakthrough in the UK market, more than 10 years after the initial idea, was through a TV advertising campaign that emphasized that, unlike most of its rivals, it 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. The product now outsells those of some of the companies that rejected his idea and has become one of the most popular brands in the UK. 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).
Following his success, other major manufacturers began to market their own cyclonic vacuum cleaners. Dyson sued Hoover
The Hoover Company
The Hoover Company started out as an American floor care manufacturer based in North Canton, Ohio. It also established a major base in the United Kingdom and for most of the early-and-mid-20th century, it dominated the electric vacuum cleaner industry, to the point where the "hoover" brand name...
UK for patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
infringement and won around $5 million in damages.
In a highly controversial and bitterly opposed move, his manufacturing plant moved from England to Malaysia, for economic reasons and because of difficulty acquiring land for expansion, leaving 800 workers redundant in 2002. The company's headquarters and research facilities remain in Malmesbury. Dyson later stated that because of the cost savings from transferring production to Malaysia, he was able to invest in research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
at Malmesbury, but further redundancies at Malmesbury were subsequently announced in 2008.
In 2005, Dyson incorporated the wheel ball from his Ballbarrow concept into a vacuum cleaner, creating the Dyson Ball, claiming it to be more maneuverable.
Further inventions
In 2000, Dyson expanded his appliance range to include a washing machine called the ContraRotator, which had two rotating drums moving in opposite directions. The range was decorated in the usual bright Dyson colours, rather than the traditional white, grey or black of most other machines. The item was not a commercial success and is no longer available.In 2002, Dyson created a realisation of the optical illusion
Optical illusion
An optical illusion is characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality. The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give a perception that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source...
s depicted in the lithographs of Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
artist M. C. Escher
M. C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher , usually referred to as M. C. Escher , was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints...
. Engineer Derek Phillips was able to accomplish the task after a year of work, creating a water sculpture in which the water appears to flow up to the tops of four ramps arranged in a square, before cascading to the bottom of the next ramp. The creation titled Wrong Garden, was displayed at the Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea Flower Show
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London...
in the spring of 2003. The illusion is accomplished with water containing air bubbles pumped through a chamber underneath the transparent glass ramps to a slit at the top from which the bulk of the water cascades down. This makes it appear that the water is flowing up, when actually a small amount of water diverted from the slit at the top flows back down the ramps in a thin layer.
Dyson Airblade
The Dyson Airblade is a model of electric hand dryer made by the Wiltshire, UK based company Dyson. It was introduced in the UK in 2006 and in the United States in latter part of 2007. Instead of using a wide jet of heated air, it uses a layer of unheated air traveling at around 400 miles per hour...
, a fast hand dryer
Hand dryer
Hand dryers are electric devices found in public washrooms that are used to dry hands. They may either operate with a button or automatically using an infrared sensor.- Costs :...
.
Dyson's most recent addition is a fan without external blades, which he calls the "Air Multiplier".
Personal life and non-business activities
Dyson married Deirdre Hindmarsh in 1968. The couple have three children: Emily, Jacob and Sam.Dyson paid £15 million for Dodington Park
Dodington Park
Dodington Park is a country house and estate in Dodington, Gloucestershire, England.The Codrington family acquired the estate in the late 16th century, when there was a large gables Elizabethan house and adjoining church...
, a 300 acres (1.2 km²) Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
estate in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, close to Chipping Sodbury
Chipping Sodbury
Chipping Sodbury is a market town in the county of South Gloucestershire, south-west England, founded in the 12th century by William Crassus . The villages of Old Sodbury and Little Sodbury are nearby...
. He and his wife also have a £3 million chateau
Château
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
in France, and a town house in Chelsea, London
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
. The Sunday Times Rich List 2008
Sunday Times Rich List 2008
The Sunday Times Rich List 2008 was published on 27 April 2008.Since 1989 the UK national Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times has published an annual magazine supplement to the newspaper called the Sunday Times Rich List...
estimated his fortune at £1.1 billion, while Forbes estimates it at £1 billion.
Dyson was chair of the board of trustees of the Design Museum
Design Museum
Design Museum is a museum by the River Thames near Tower Bridge in central London, England. The museum covers product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design. It was founded in 1989 and claims to be the first museum of modern design...
, "the first in the world to showcase design of the manufactured object", until suddenly resigning in September 2004,
stating the museum had "become a style showcase" instead of "upholding its mission to encourage serious design of the manufactured object".
James Dyson Foundation
Dyson set up the Foundation in 2002 to support design and engineering education. This is specially aimed at inspiring young people to study engineering and become engineers by encouraging students to think differently and to make mistakes. The Foundation particularly supports schools in WiltshireWiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
as well as medical and scientific research in partnership with charities. It achieves this by funding different resources such as the "Education box", a box filled with activities for a school to use as a teaching aid. The Foundation loans the boxes to schools for four weeks, free of charge. They are suitable for Key stage
Key Stage
A Key Stage is a stage of the state education system in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the British Territory of Gibraltar setting the educational knowledge expected of students at various ages...
4 and above and can be used in universities. The Education box enables students to take apart and examine a Dyson DC22 Telescope vacuum cleaner. In addition,, a school is allowed to retain a James Dyson Foundation teacher pack, and a copy of Genius Of Britain, a Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
TV series featuring James Dyson himself, and design engineering posters. Other resources are also available.
Another way the Foundation inspires young minds is with the James Dyson Awards. This is an international design award that "celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers". It is organised and run by the James Dyson Foundation Charitable Trust and is open to graduates (or recent graduates) in the fields of product design, industrial design and engineering.
Honours
In 1997, Dyson was awarded the Prince Phillip Designers Prize. In 2000, he received the Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran Award. In 2005, he was elected a Fellow of The Royal Academy of EngineeringRoyal Academy of Engineering
-Overview: is the UK’s national academy of engineering. The Academy brings together the most successful and talented engineers from across the engineering sectors for a shared purpose: to advance and promote excellence in engineering....
. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in the New Year's Honours December 2006.
Autobiography
External links
- Dyson Company website.
- James Dyson profile at Forbes.comForbesForbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
- BBC notice of Dyson's water sculpture Wrong Garden with photos and diagram.
- Engineering the Difference Dyson's Richard Dimbleby Lecture in 2004
- James Dyson interview on Design at Core77.comCore77Core77 is an online magazine dedicated to the practice and produce of the field of industrial design. The site began as two students' graduate school project at Brooklyn, New York's Pratt Institute. It serves as a practical resource for students, practitioners and fans of the field, as well as a...
- All of James Dyson's patents and patent applications