To understand James’ tenacity we need to go back to a younger James Dyson. While attending the Royal College of Art he met friend and mentor Jeremy Fry, of Rotork. Their work together would lead to one of James’ earliest designs, the Ballbarrow. From this project came the inadvertant inspiration for his most well known invention, the bagless vacuum cleaner. While working in the Ballbarrow factory James made an industrial cyclone to keep dust out of the work room. He wondered whether the same principle would work on a vacuum cleaner. Only one way to find out. With the help of cardboard, scissors and some tape he made the first prototype of Dyson cyclone technology. 5,126 prototypes later he’d perfected the Dual Cyclone technology. No clogging. No loss of suction.

  

 

It took 15 years of frustration, knock backs and perseverance before James launched the DCO1 vacuum cleaner in 1993. Within 18 months it had become the best-selling vacuum cleaner in the UK. Today, Dyson cleaners are available in 45 countries. James continues to work alongside his team of engineers in the UK, solving problems and developing new technologies. 2006 saw the release of the Dyson Airblade™ hand dryer. It is the world’s first hygienic hand dryer that literally scrapes water from hands and dries them in 10 seconds. Another frustration solved.

In 2008, Dyson have been working on spacesaving technology with greater manoeuvrability. The DC24 Ball™ sits on a ball instead of using four wheels like a conventional cleaner - it turns on a sixpence. So what’s next? Dyson continues to work on new technology – so watch this space…