On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 23:29:19 +0100, Stefek Zaba
wrote:


James Dyson observed this principle in use in an industrial application
(cyclone extraction's been used there for decades, AIUI), and thought
it'd work OK scaled down to domestic-vac proportions. Whether that
counts as brilliant innovation or bleedin' obvious is a matter of
opinion - though by the bizarrely trivial standards of patents, it
counted as 'novel' enough for Dyson to patent the idea in the
domestic-vac application...

I think the story goes like this...

James Dyson invented a new type of wheel barrow called the ballbarrow.

The manufacturing plant used to spray the ballbarrows with paint. They
found it necessary to use a cloth filter attached to an extractor fan
to remove paint and vapour in the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the cloth filter would become blocked with paint. Every
so often they would have to stop work and clean the cloth.

Dyson looked around for an alternative solution. It was suggested that
they use a cyclone unit.

Dyson climbed over the fence into a wood yard and saw that a cyclone
device was being used to separate out the saw dust from the clean air.

Whilst cleaning the house with his vac one day, he thought that the
idea of a cyclone could be used to make a bagless cleaner.

I think he has made something like 5,000 prototypes.

I read his autobiography a few years ago. I think the problem he had
was finding a way to trap certain types of large dirt (like fluff)
that might normally pass through the cyclone and into the filter.

Dyson successfully sued Hoover and other manufacturers for copying his
idea.

Graham