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.