48 Facts About James Dyson

Sir James Dyson was born on 2 May 1947 and is a British inventor, industrial designer, farmer, and business magnate who founded the Dyson company.

James Dyson is best known as the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation.

James Dyson 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.

James Dyson was born 2 May 1947 in Cromer, Norfolk, one of three children of Janet M and Alec William Dyson.

James Dyson's father died of prostate cancer when he was nine years old and he described his childhood home as 'penniless' after his father's death.

James Dyson was nonetheless educated at Gresham's School, an independent boarding school in Holt, Norfolk, from 1956 to 1965, due to the Headmaster agreeing to pay his school fees.

In 2015 James Dyson spoke at the opening of a retrospective exhibition of de Sausmarez's work at the University of Leeds, speaking of the great influence the artist and former principal had on him and his career.

James Dyson studied furniture and interior design at the Royal College of Art between 1966 and 1970, before moving into engineering.

In 1970, James Dyson helped to design the Sea Truck while studying at the Royal College of Art.

James Dyson's first original invention, the Ballbarrow, was a modified version of a wheelbarrow using a ball instead of a wheel and was featured on the BBC's Tomorrow's World television programme.

James Dyson persisted with the idea of ball instead of wheel and invented the Trolleyball, a trolley that launched boats.

James Dyson designed the Wheelboat which could travel at speeds of 64 kilometres per hour on land and water.

James Dyson became frustrated with his Hoover Junior's diminishing performance: the dust bag pores kept becoming clogged with dust, which reduced suction.

Partly supported by his wife's salary as an art teacher, and after five years and about 5,127 prototypes, James Dyson launched the "G-Force" cleaner in 1983.

James Dyson filed a series of patents for his dual cyclone vacuum cleaner EP0037674 in 1980, and when his invention was rejected by the major manufacturers, he set up his own manufacturing company, James Dyson Ltd.

In early 2005, it was reported that James Dyson cleaners had become the market leaders in the United States by value.

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

In 1999, James Dyson sued Hoover for patent infringement, and 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 mid-2014, James Dyson personally appeared in Tokyo to introduce his "360 Eye" robotic vacuum cleaner.

In 2000, James Dyson expanded his appliance range to include a washing machine called the ContraRotator, which had two rotating drums moving in opposite directions.

In October 2006, James Dyson launched a fast hand dryer, the James Dyson Airblade, that used a thin layer of air as a squeegee to remove water from the skin, rather than using heat.

James Dyson 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.

In March 2016, James Dyson announced a second new multimillion-pound research and development centre on a 517-acre former Ministry of Defence site at Hullavington, Wiltshire.

James Dyson said it aimed to double its UK-based workforce in the next five or six years.

James Dyson assembled a team of more than 400 people for the project.

In October 2019, James Dyson announced that the electric car project had been cancelled due to it not being commercially viable.

James Dyson has several times accused Chinese spies and students of copying technological and scientific secrets from the UK through the planting of software bugs and by infiltrating British industries, institutions, and universities after they left.

James Dyson complained that China benefits from stealing foreign designs, flouting of product copyrights, and a two-speed patent system that discriminates against foreign firms with unreasonably longer times.

The James Dyson group stated to The Guardian in 2014: "At no time did the [group's former] non-UK structure deliver any significant tax advantage and, of the entities in question, all have been dissolved".

In 1998, James Dyson was one of the chairmen and chief executives of 20 FTSE 100 companies who signed a statement published in The Financial Times calling on the government for early British membership of the Eurozone.

James Dyson claimed that failure to join the euro would lead to the destruction of the British manufacturing base.

In February 2000 claiming that the strength of the pound was affecting his company's profits on exports to France and Germany, James Dyson threatened to shift focus from his Malmesbury plant to a new plant set up in Malaysia because the government would not join the euro.

Later in 2000 James Dyson again threatened to shift production abroad.

In February 2002, James Dyson announced that production was being shifted to the Far East.

James Dyson was one of the most prominent UK business leaders to publicly support Brexit before the referendum in June 2016.

Since the referendum, James Dyson has stated that Britain should leave the EU Single Market and that this would "liberate" the economy and allow Britain to strike its own trade deals around the world.

In 2017, James Dyson suggested that the UK should leave the EU without an interim deal and that "uncertainty is an opportunity".

Previously, in 2014, James Dyson had said he would be voting to leave the European Union to avoid being "dominated and bullied by the Germans".

In November 2017, James Dyson was critical of the UK government Brexit negotiations and said "we should just walk away and they will come to us".

In November 2015, James Dyson lost its case against EU energy labelling laws in the European General Court; however, a subsequent appeal in the European Court of Justice said that the previous ruling had "distorted the facts" and "erred in law".

James Dyson criticised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in January 2023 for what he called "ever higher tax bills" for corporations.

In 2022, James Dyson sued Channel 4 and ITN over allegations of exploitation of workers at one of his suppliers' factories.

In December 2023, James Dyson unsuccessfully brought a libel claim against Mirror Group Newspapers in which he claimed that an opinion article published in the Daily Mirror in January 2022 criticising his company's move to Singapore following his support of Brexit was "highly distressing and hurtful".

James Dyson owns two Gulfstream G650ER private jets registered G-VIOF and G-GSVI.

James Dyson previously owned an older Gulfstream G650, registered G-ULFS and currently owns a AgustaWestland AW-139 helicopter.

James Dyson is a lifelong fan of Bath Rugby and has frequently attended games at the Rec.

The James Dyson company have been the title sponsors of the club since 2014, with Bath Rugby being the first sports team officially backed by the firm.

James Dyson has invested heavily in buying agricultural land in Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire, and by 2014 was one of the biggest landowners in the UK.