Can Dyson do the double?

The name of James Dyson has become a byword for the entrepreneurial inventor and the developer and defender of new technology, whether it be in the design studio or the High Court.

The story of Dyson’s titanic struggle to bring the dual cyclone vacuum cleaner to the market has become part of UK manufacturing folklore — the phrase ‘doing a Dyson’ is used to exemplify what engineers can achieve, given the right idea and persistence by the bucket-load.

In the five years it took to develop the machine, Dyson built more than 5,000 prototypes and filed over 100 patents. Even when the bagless vacuum cleaner was perfected, it took him a further 10 years to get the appliance into the shops. In 1993, after trawling round the established appliance manufacturers, and failing to persuade any to license his product, Dyson finally decided to manufacture it himself.

Now the head of an established company with a reputation for developing new technology, what has Dyson learned from this experience that he could use in the development of the new washing machine?