James Dyson - Invention: A Life

James Dyson

Invention: A Life

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Copyright 2021 by James Dyson

Originally published in Great Britain in 2021 by Simon & Schuster UK

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition September 2021

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Typeset in Minion and Dyson Futura by Anna Green at Siulen Design

Photography By Johnny Ring. Jacket Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBN 978-1-9821-8842-9

ISBN 978-1-9821-8844-3 (ebook)

This book is dedicated to Deirdre, without whose love, encouragement, advice, tolerance and forbearance, none of this would ever have happened. Also, to Emily, Jake, Sam, and our wonderful grandchildren, who make the closest of families and whose enthusiasm for creating things flourishes so strongly.

In 1983, after four years of building and testing 5,127 handmade prototypes of my cyclonic vacuum, I finally cracked it. Perhaps I should have punched the air, whooped loudly, and run down the road from my workshop shrieking Eureka! at the top of my voice. Instead, far from feeling elatedwhich surely after 5,126 failures I should have beenI felt strangely deflated.

How could this have been?

The answer lies in failure. Day after day, with the wolf at the door, I had been pursuing the development of an ever more efficient cyclone for collecting and separating dust from a flow of air. I built several cyclones each day, conducting tests on each one to evaluate its effectiveness in collecting dust as fine as 0.5 micronsthe width of a human hair is between 50 and 100 micronswhile using as little energy as possible.

This might sound boring and tedious to the outsider. I get that. But when you have set yourself an objective that, if reached, might pioneer a better solution to existing technologies and products, you become engaged, hooked, and even one-track-minded.

Folklore depicts invention as a flash of brilliance. That eureka moment! But it rarely is, Im afraid. It is more about accepting failure to be able to achieve that moment of ultimate success. Funnily enough, engineers who are good at inventing things are never satisfied with their latest creation. They tend to look at it quizzically and say, I now know how to make it better, which is a wonderful opportunity! This is the start of their reinvention, marking another leap in performance.

If would-be young inventors could see that pioneering a cure for Alzheimers, for example, is not about eureka flashes of Archimedean brilliance but more about an intelligent pursuit of diligent research, they might be less discouraged by the notion that brilliance is a prerequisite for their research. Research is about conducting experiments, accepting and even enjoying failure, but going on, following a theory garnered from observing the science. Invention is often more about endurance and patient observation than brain waves.

I wanted to share my story as the first cohort of Dyson students graduate from Dyson Universityfor them, and all of us students dedicated to the pursuit of curiosity, learning, and embracing the joy of making things. It is a story told through a life of creating and developing things, as well as expressing a call to arms for young people to become engineers, creating solutions to our current and future problems.

Graduating fifty-two years ago from the Royal College of Art, I wasnt trained as an engineer or scientist, originally studying fine art but graduating with a degree in industrial design. I remember being excited that I would be making a product that I had helped design, but not having a clue about volume manufacturing or marketing. I was nave and eager to learn, with a bloody-mindedness not to follow convention, to challenge experts, and to ignore doubting Thomases. I am also someone who is prepared to slog through prototype after prototype searching for the breakthrough. If a slow starter like me could succeed, surely this might encourage others.

Now its not just me facing a steep learning curve. Im inspired by an extraordinarily talented team, hell-bent on creating new technology and delivering it to our millions of customers around the world. We share the same belief in pioneering our own way, with the same determination to overcome difficulties. Their loyalty and dedication is what has built Dyson into a global technology company.

My vacuum story began forty-two years ago when I was determined to develop a cyclonic system for separating dust without a clogging bag. As with most research and development, the early days were spent testing prototypes in order to discover certain truths about dimensions and shapes. This is the essential groundwork of learning the art, before starting the experimental work that might lead to a quantum leap. I looked forward to going to work, hoping that maybe today I would discover something new and inch my way forward.

Usually covered in dust, the failures began to excite me. Wait a minute, that should have worked, now why didnt it? I was scratching my head, mystified, but then had another idea for an experiment that might lead to solving the problem. I was getting deeper and deeper into debt, yet happy and absorbed, thanks to the support of my wife, Deirdre, who allowed us to put our house and home life at risk, while the bank was kind enough to lend us money. She and our children offered encouragement, love, and understanding, despite what was on the line. Without that, and the loyal support of close friends, I would have given up.

Invention is so very important today because young people are passionate about saving the planet, improving the environment, and finding cures for life-threatening diseases. I believe that these problems can be solved by the diligent application of research and development. I would love to see more children and university students motivated to become engineers and scientists to make the breakthroughs that they so want to happen. We should be encouraging the young to become doers, to help them strive to solve the problems of their age while looking forward to a better future.