Dyson Vacuum Cleaners – A History

Being the avid vacuum cleaner lover and historian I am, I have decided to write up a little bit about the history of one of the most popular vacuum cleaner brands in the United States. If you don’t find it interesting at the very least I hope it was helpful in writing a term paper or something.

An inventor by the name of James Dyson developed several products during the course of his career including the Sea Truck that enabled ships to be launched without the use of harbors. One of his more practical inventions was a wheelbarrow that relied on a ball rather than a wheel. His most famous invention however was the Dyson Vacuum Cleaner. In the 1970’s Dyson noticed that vacuum cleaners tended to lose suction power as they picked up more dirt, an issue that remains a major problem with many vacuum cleaners to this day. Like every good inventor James Dyson found a problem and set out to fix it.

James Dyson took a great deal of inspiration for his new vacuum cleaner from the machinery in his ballbarrow manufacturing plant. James noticed the air filters in his production line generated a cyclone and he began experimenting with a cyclone based suction system. After more than 5,000 prototypes and many hours of tinkering with his design, James had designed the first bagless vacuum cleaner powered by a cyclonic suction system.

James Dyson quickly released his vacuum cleaner under the name G-Force Vacuum Cleaner, The G-Force Vacuum Cleaner was not well received in his home country of England or the United States; Dyson pressed on and to new markets, this time in Japan. Dyson’s G-Force Vacuum Cleaner was a huge hit in Japan and was sold in catalogues across the country. James even won the prestigious International Design Fair award in 1991 for his unique vacuum cleaner design.

Despite his new vacuum cleaner design having been rejected by several major vacuum cleaner brands, Dyson Vacuum Cleaners finally caught on in Europe and the United States. In 2005 the Dyson Vacuum Cleaner brand had captured a majority share of the vacuum cleaner market making James Dyson a billionaire! James Dyson continues to innovate and developed among other things, a water fountain that creates the illusion water flows up against gravity!