Joel Moykr is an economic historian who argues that much technological progress comes from small improvements, and these little improvements are complementary to the large improvements that most people focus on. Indeed, while almost everyone believes that major innovations are made possible by numerous minor innovations, the reverse seems more important. Radical advances in the manipulation or understanding of physical processes are usually the beginning, not the end, of a prolonged process of improvements and modifications.So I'd like to highlight the vacuum cleaner, as Dyson created this new vacuum based on cyclonic separation. As the picture shows, the inflow is not slowed by a filter, but instead the air flow swirls around, allowing most of the dirt to merely falls downward. This is as opposed to air being sucked through a hepa filter, which obviously lowers the suction.
I got a new cyclical vacuum (everyone's making them, I guess the patent is hard to enforce) and man, does that thing suck. I sold Kirby vacuums one summer, so I'm pretty knowledgeable about these things. This is truly a quantum leap.
HedgeFundGuy - am 2007-04-19 04:14
Paul N (guest) meinte am 20. Apr, 03:12:
Two points: (1) Dyson took a long time to make this vacuum work and went through howevermany prototypes, i.e. his major innovation was made possible by many minor innovations (2) Consumer Reports rates the Dysons right in the middle of their lists.Aside: my mom spent the big bucks on a Kirby and put me and my brother to work. Vacuuming stairs with that thing was an absolute nightmare, I think it weighed 35 or 40 lbs.
ed (guest) meinte am 24. Apr, 03:20:
I sold Kirby's too, for a little while. Jobs were scarce. I was young and inexperienced, so I didn't fully appreciate at first what an overpriced rip-off they were.It was hard to make any money at it, but one day I finally signed up the full package to some lower-income family. I went home that night, and despite finally having made some decent money, I felt terrible that I'd sweet talked these people into buying something they couldn't really afford. I'm sure someone else would have come along to separate them from their money anyway, but I didn't want to be part of that. So I quit the next day. Fortunately I found a gig delivering pizzas that was a better job anyway.
Steve Roberts (guest) meinte am 24. Apr, 23:38:
Technological innovation
If you want to know more about technological innovation, read Genrich Altshuller's book "Creativity as an Exact Science". Altshuller was an extraordinary man - to give an indication of his character, he realised the true importance of his work when the MGB (KGB precursor) arrested and imprisoned him for it.
