James Dyson

Sir James Dysonis an English inventor, industrial designer, farmer and billionaire entrepreneur who founded Dyson Ltd. He is best known as the inventor of the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2022, he is the second richest person in the UK with an estimated net worth of £23 billion.

He served as the Provost of the Royal College of Art from August 2011 to July 2017,[ and opened a new University, the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, on Dyson's Wiltshire Campus in September 2017.

Early life and education

James Dyson was born 2 May 1947 in Cromer, Norfolk, one of three children, and named after his grandfather, James Dyson. He was educated at Gresham's School, an independent boarding school in Holt, Norfolk, from 1956 to 1965, when his father died of prostate 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. It was while attending the Royal College of Art to study fine art that Dyson made the switch to industrial design due in part to the tutorage of the structural engineer Anthony Hunt.

Early inventions

Dyson helped design the Sea Truck in 1970 while studying at the Royal College of Art. His first original invention, the Ballbarrow, was a modified version of a wheelbarrow using a ball instead of a wheel. This was featured on the BBC's Tomorrow's World television programme. 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.