James Dyson

James Dyson married Deirdre Hindmarsh, an art teacher and painter, in 1968. They have three children: Emily, Jake, and Sam.

He set up the James Dyson Foundation in 2002 to support design and engineering education. He aims to inspire young and innovative minds to study engineering and also supports the work of young designers through the James Dyson Award.

James Dyson was born on May 2, 1947, in Cromer, Norfolk, England, to Alec Dyson and Mary, as one of their three children. His father was a teacher.

His father died of cancer when James was nine. This tragedy deeply affected the little boy and he felt very lost and insecure without a father figure to guide him.

He attended Gresham's School, a boarding school in Holt, Norfolk, from 1956 to 1965. He excelled at long distance running as a student, and he credits his gritty determination for his success as a runner.

He went to London after graduation and studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art for one year (1965-66) before studying furniture and interior design at the Royal College of Art (1966–70). He later moved into engineering.

Following his graduation in 1970, he took a job at Rotork Controls Ltd., Bath, Somerset. Here he had the good fortune of having an unconventional boss, Jeremy Fry, who encouraged young talents and motivated them to be innovative.

His boss put Dyson in charge of designing a high-speed landing craft in spite of the fact that Dyson had no prior experience in designing a product. Working along with his boss, he designed the Rotork Sea Truck, a flat-hulled, high-speed watercraft, similar to a small landing craft.

In 1974, he came up with his first original invention, the Ballbarrow. It was a variation of the wheelbarrow design, featuring a molded plastic hopper on a steel frame and a spherical plastic wheel, allowing increased maneuverability as compared to a conventional design.

In the late 1970s, he faced a problem with his new vacuum cleaner and felt that the “bag” system was hindering the efficient performance of the appliance. So he began working on designing a bagless vacuum cleaner that would be more efficient.

He came up with the idea of using cyclonic separation to create a vacuum cleaner that would not lose suction as it picked up dirt and over the next five years he tirelessly worked on his designs. Finally in 1983 he launched the "G-Force" cleaner.

He is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, popularly known as the “G-Force”. First marketed by a Japanese company, the product became very popular in Japan and Dyson used the money he earned from G-Force to start up his own company, the Dyson Ltd.