From the people who know it best...

[vintagehoover]

In August 2008, I, along with many people on this forum, made the pilgrimage to 'the holy land' of North Canton, Ohio, to visit the birthplace of one of my favourite vac brands.

On January 27th 2010, I made a pilgrimage to my 'other' holy land, Dyson HQ in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. This is the nerve-centre of the worldwide Dyson appliance empire, where every single Dyson product is designed, developed, and rigorously destruction-tested.

Here's the first of the videos to come from the footage I shot that day. More will follow, I'm just waiting to get clearance from Dyson to make the rest of it publically-available online.

In this video, Blair, one of Dyson's 350 design-engineers, and one of my tourguides for the day, gives a basic overview of the new DC26 City. This was filmed right at the end of the day - I'd hoped to go into greater detail about the 5-year development process of the model, but we just didn't have time!


<object width=873 height=525><param name=movie value=></param><param name=allowFullScreen value=true></param><param name=allowscriptaccess value=always></param><embed src= type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowscriptaccess=always allowfullscreen=true width=873 height=525></embed></object>

 

[vintagehoover]

You may recognise the room we're in, and particularly the table we're sitting at, from the 'Inside Dyson' section of Dyson's website.

The famous 'tension table' is contructed of 2 sheets of laminated glass supported by wire cables, and gives the illusion that it's floating in the air! However, it's strong enough to take the weight of a full grown adult. Similar engineering was used to create the 'floating' glass benches featured in 'The Wrong Garden', Dyson's entry in the 2003 Chelsea Flower Show.

This is one of the nice things about the company being solely owned by James Dyson and his family, rather than a group of faceless, nameless Chinese investment bankers. If he says 'We're going to need a meeting room in the RDD lab, and it'll need a table - but I want the table to float in the air!' - he can have that!

 

[vintagehoover]

Coming soon to a YouTube channel near you...

<object width=853 height=505><param name=movie value=></param><param name=allowFullScreen value=true></param><param name=allowscriptaccess value=always></param><embed src= type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowscriptaccess=always allowfullscreen=true width=853 height=505></embed></object>

 

[chestermikeuk]

To A Channell Near You..!!!

Great stuff Jack, glad you made it inside another "Hallowed Towers" looking forward to the reviews...I bet there was plenty of swipe & biometrics systems to check through??

Do all the designers wear black?? or are they allowed wear whatever?? The new baby does look rather neat, I can see a demo coming on!!!

Congrats, Mike

 

[vintagehoover]

Hi Mike,

yeah, we passed through about 3 finger-print ID barriers to get to the RDD centre! The entrance itself is a revolving door, to prevent more than one person at a time from gaining access. I had to wear an armband to show I was an 'approved photographer' - Dyson take the protection of their intellectual property extremely seriously, which is why it's so astounding I was allowed to film at all!

The designers wear whatever they feel comfortable in: to quote the section in 'Doing a Dyson' concerning Dyson's working methods:

"People do not wear suits and ties - 'We should be human beings, not businessmen.'"

As for the Dyson City, I'll certainly be bringing it with me when we meet up next (along with the Air Multiplier, Miele Hybrid, Vax Mach Air and Vax LiFE!), so you'll be able to put it through its paces yourself