In 1978, James Dyson became frustrated with his vacuum cleaner’s diminishing performance. Taking it apart, he discovered that its bag was clogging with dust, causing suction to drop. He’d recently built an industrial cyclone tower for his factory that separated paint particles from the air using centrifugal force. But could the same principle work in a vacuum cleaner?

He set to work. Five years and 5,127 prototypes later, he had invented the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner.

Today, there are Dyson machines in over 65 countries around the world. Dyson has grown from one man and one idea to a technology company with over 1,000 engineers worldwide. But it doesn’t stand still. At its core is an ever-growing team of engineers and scientists. More ideas. More invention.