Artist of the day: Artist of the day, August 30: Sir James Dyson, British inventor, industrial designer, engineer, entrepreneur

Sir James Dyson (1947) is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation.

James Dyson was educated at Gresham's School, an independent boarding school in Holt, Norfolk, from 1956 to 1965, when his father died of cancer. He excelled at 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, and then studied furniture and interior design at the Royal College of Art (1966–1970) before moving into engineering.

His first original invention, the Ballbarrow, was a modified version of a wheelbarrow using a ball instead of a wheel. Dyson stuck with the idea of a ball, inventing the Trolleyball, a trolley that launched boats. He then designed the Wheelboat, which could travel at speeds of 64 kilometres per hour (40 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: the dust bag pores kept becoming clogged with dust thus reducing suction.

Partly supported by his wife's salary as an art teacher, and after five years and about 5,127 prototypes, Dyson launched the "G-Force" cleaner in 1983. However, no manufacturer or distributor would handle his product in the UK, as it would have disturbed 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 the equivalent of £2,000. It won the 1991 International Design Fair Prize in Japan.

After his invention was rejected by the major manufacturers, Dyson set up his own manufacturing company, Dyson Ltd. In June 1993, he opened a research centre and factory.

Dyson licensed the technology in North America from 1986 to 2001 to Fantom Technologies, after which Dyson entered the market directly.

Following his success, other major manufacturers began to market their own cyclonic vacuum cleaners. In 1999, Dyson sued Hoover (UK) for patent infringement. The High Court ruled that Hoover had deliberately copied a fundamental part of his patented designs in making its Triple Vortex bagless vacuum cleaner range.

In 2005, Dyson incorporated the wheel ball from his Ballbarrow concept into a vacuum cleaner, creating the Dyson Ball. This ball, rather than the static wheels on existing vacuums, enabled it to become more steerable, which was more useful for navigating around obstacles and corners.

In mid-2014, Dyson personally appeared in Tokyo to introduce his "360 Eye" robotic vacuum cleaner. Dyson's initial entry into this market segment features 360° scanning and mapping for navigation, cyclonic dust separation, a custom-designed digital motor for high suction, tank treads for traction, a full-width brushroll bar, and user interface via a free iOS or Android app.

In 2000, Dyson expanded his appliance range to include a washing machine called the ContraRotator, which had two rotating drums moving in opposite directions. In 2002, he created a realisation of the optical illusions 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.

In October 2006 Dyson launched the Dyson Airblade, a fast hand dryer that uses a thin sheet of moving air as a squeegee to remove water, rather than attempting to evaporate it with heat. This allows faster drying, while using much less energy than traditional electrical hand dryers.

In April 2016, Dyson launched the Dyson Supersonic, a hair dryer with a smaller motor located in the handle so as to provide better balance and smaller size, as well as quieter operation. Commenting on the launch Vogue magazine said "as the first product to launch from Dyson's new UK state-of-the-art hair laboratory, we have high hopes for the future of our blow-dries."

In 2017 Dyson is spending £7m a week on research and development of new products. The company is the UK’s biggest investor in robotics and artificial intelligence research, employing over 3,500 engineers and scientists, and engaging in more than 40 university research programmes.

On 1 March 2016 James Dyson announced a second new multimillion-pound research and development centre on a 517-acre former Ministry of Defence (MoD) site. The technology and electronics company said it aimed to double its UK based workforce in the next five or six years.

In September 2017 Dyson announced plans to produce an electric vehicle, aiming to be launched in 2020, investing £2bn of his own money. He has assembled a team of more than 400 people for the project while still seeking more recruits.

In September 2017 Sir James Dyson started the first phase of his own university, the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology (informally referred to as DIET). The cohort is reportedly composed mainly of Oxbridge rejects aiming to excel the traditional university students in engineering expertise.

Dyson set up the Foundation in 2002 to support design and engineering education – it now operates in UK, US and Japan. The Foundation's aim is to inspire young people to study engineering and become engineers by encouraging students to think differently and to make mistakes.

In May 2014, the Foundation announced an £8m donation to create a technology hub at the University of Cambridge. A new four-story building will house 1,200 postgraduate engineers and support world-leading research.

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