Few inventions have lent themselves to as little improvement over the years as the simple fan, with its whirring blades that blow air across a desk or through a room.
But now even the conventional fan has been transformed.
James Dyson, the British inventor behind the vacuums that bear his name, has come up with an incredibly simple-looking, circular fan that has no blades. It uses “Air Multiplier” technology to push 119 gallons of smooth air out every second.
The conventional fan relying on blades has been largely unchanged for about two centuries; the first mechanical fans are said to have been built in the Middle East in the early 19th century. Ceiling fans blew onto the scene in the 1860s, powered by running water and a setup that turned a series of belts with the ability to operate several fans at once (some of these still exist in old buildings). A personal electric fan hit the market in the 1880s.
This 10-inch fan is however $300!
Full article at LiveScience
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Hmmmmm I do live Dyson facts :/
Can this be used to lift a chopper? =)
ah but can it oscilate!
I don’t care how good this is. I don’t even care if it works; I just want one on my desk.
This would mean I can stop loitering around toilets… (To use the ‘Airblade’ hand dryers)
I just noticed the little Derren faces on here are to represent ‘smileys’… Heh hee – Ridiculous!
I envy your CV! Derren Brown: magician, illusionist, mentalist, painter and domestic appliance journalist.
If it’s as noisy as the “air jet” hand drier thats installed into the gents toilets in pubs then I’d ask him not to put this invention into production.
A circular device with a smooth interior that can blow and suck?
Mr Dyson, you have just revolutionised the sex toy industry.
I always insist on no blades. Hate when they come towards you at the end of a show with that look in their eyes. Fans? Pshaw.
@Tash
Apparently yes it can.
Hmmm…will he move production back to the UK for this I wonder? Have boycotted Dyson products ever since he moved production to China, losing UK companies millions.
Dyson’s fan vs Derren’s fans… which is better? – FIGHT!
Nobody should buy anything made by this job-exporting twat.
That looks very interesting.
That’s not new .. I haven’t seen blades around here yet.
I actually don’t dislike the blades on a fan. Might be a cool solution to the wind mills though .. Although a circular one might polute the view more than those SF looking wind mills that are all over the place (in my area there are quite a lot .. I keep sensing them a bit as .. SF .. ). I think there were already circular ones though .. but not for private use.
What about the stylish fault (?) for manual use .. or a slightly larger one that comes with a personal slave .. What’s wrong with that? Those come a lot cheaper than 300 US$ if you know your way around … okay, they need to be fed I guess, now and then .. otherwise it gets hots after all.
Surely the impeller in the base still has blades though?
For the same effect, stick your flymo mower on its side, remove the mower blades and switch on..
I like blue!
It’s fed by a conventional fan. Impellor/propellor is doing the whole bladed movement of air feeding the louvres on the halo. Will need to be at pressure to create the effect described too, so probably less efficient than a lazy normal fan spinning quite slowly. I remain skeptical! @Omiscient
surely £300 is not much to pay Mr Dyson to sit and blow through that blue thing…or is there going to be a ‘blower’ free with every blue disc??
The thing I find most amusing is that Dyson always seems to look both surprised and confused at his own designs.
The Dyson ‘fan’ is reportedly being made (assembled) in the UK :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/13/dyson-fan-green-airblade
@Nopke
Do you really think windmills generate wind or something? I think you’ll find that the wind is actually turning the blades to generate power via a turbine, hence having no blades is not really an option.
However I wouldn’t say no to having a few of these, giant sized, across the landscape for the days when the wind isn’t doing it’s job.
@Tash
Yes.
And tilt.
Oh…I was kind of hoping that this fan was invented by Freeman Dyson, of the Dyson Sphere.
Ooooh, I want me one of those!
LC x
Rubbish idea in my opinion, there’d be no fun in flicking some water into that thing!
£200 for one of these is a good investment – just think of all the things you could use it for that you can’t use a normal fan for.
Great news for the sweatshop workers who will make this one. :/
oooh nice
Can’t tie pretty ribbon strnds to it and watch them dance about though can you? Clever.
lol@Mike
x
F1 teams have a similar doobry stuck on the end of a compressed air line in the pits at hot races to cool the driver….
But do you get a good white noise? My fan is an excellent sound curtain to fend off the elephants in clogs who sometimes arrive home for a 5am party above our bedroom. It also drowns out Martin’s little snorky noises of an evening.