Sucking Up Millions

James Dyson – why do people hold him in such high regard? He invented a bloody Hoover (and I know Hoover is a brand name and I should use “vacuum” instead, but I don’t care).

In fact, he didn’t even invent, but improved an already existing device for picking up dust from carpets. In the grand scheme of things (and call me controversial) this seems a fairly unimportant contribution to the awesome scope of human engineering. Other unnamed and undoubtedly less wealthy engineers have built tunnels under the French/Swiss border to recreate the big bang, landed probes on the surface of Mars or spanned seemingly unspannable distances with cantilevered constructions. James Dyson removes fluff from floors and he’s held up as some kind of engineering hero.

Whilst this post was bubbling in my head, and lest I vented my spleen Dysonwards without justification, I conducted a little research and looked him up on Wikipedia in case there was anything more to him. Strangely, it appears there is. He also invented those wheelbarrows with plastic balls instead of wheels. And that’s pretty much it.

James Dyson is worth £1.1 billion.