I Think You Can Read 'Bout Dyson

Today I once again had the privilege of using the Dyson Air Blade hand dryer in a public washroom.  This always restores my faith in humanity.  There are certain things that you start to believe our race is simply incapable of: overcoming our instinct for aggression, having compassion for the less fortunate, curtailing our impact on the environment, building any device in a public restroom that actually works as intended.

And then, here among malfunctioning taps and misaligned cubicle locks, we have a hand dryer that actually works.  I believe this proves several things about company founder James Dyson:

• James Dyson is a genius.  After all, he has succeeded where so many have failed.
• James Dyson has a near-psychotic fixation on air movement.  The fact that his company makes an odd range of products that just have this one thing in common is strange.  The fact that he would take on an item in the restroom when no other inventor finds it worthy of any thought at all proves it.
• James Dyson should have been born twenty years earlier.  There was a long period between the Moon Landing and the mainstreaming of the Internet when the world was devoid of revolutionary technological change.  We really could have used funky vacuum cleaners and fans then.

So what other air-movement devices can he work on?

Ceiling fans - environmentalists point out that they take only 2% the energy of air conditioning.  I don't know why they present that fact as if it were a surprise; to me it's obvious, as they are only 2% as effective.  So how about a ceiling fan that cools the room, doesn't require you to secure all light objects, and doesn't give you the impression that it is one loose screw away from taking your head off.

Computer fans - inevitably clog with dust and become less effective.  Just to disperse the heat generated by playing Mah-jongg my laptop has to run the fan so fast I worry the keyboard will turn inside-out.

Air Conditioners - not so bad if you're in a house, but for an apartment/condo, you have to chose between hearing the TV or having the AC on (or having your neighbours hate you for watching at volume eleven)

Clothes Dryers - using the vacuum technology, he could do away with lint traps.  And all that lint going around in a cyclone, it would spin itself into yarn.

Supersonic Combustion Ramjets - that would allow us to build spacecraft that would make it into orbit without multi-stage rockets.  Or are you afraid to tackle something useful, Mr. Dyson?