Dyson

Lots of appliances have consumers. Some even have adherents. But only Dyson vacuum cleaners have fans. The Dyson line of products has achieved worldwide sales of more than 10 billion dollars. Part of the reason for that is because a Dyson product has a lot in common with a work of art. James Dyson presented his first product, the Sea Truck, while still a student at the Royal College of Art in London in 1970. That was quickly followed by a succession of award-winning designs that made things work better and look great. In 1978, Dyson turned his attention to vacuum cleaners. After creating more than 5,000 prototypes in five years, he produced the world's first cyclonic bagless vacuum cleaner. Unfortunately, none of the major vacuum cleaner manufacturers wanted it, so he began to produce it himself. He soon improved the product by using several small cyclones rather than one large one. The Dyson Root Cyclone uses 100,000G of centrifugal force to pick up particles as small as the motes in cigarette smoke. And since there are no bags or filters, there is nothing to get clogged. One of Dyson's earliest inventions back in the 1970s was the Ballbarrow, a wheelbarrow that used a ball rather than wheels for greater maneuverability and to keep it from sticking in the mud. Getting stuck in mud may not be a problem in your living room, but the new Ball vacuum uses the same idea, replacing wheels with a ball for ease in maneuvering around furniture.