Great Britain is Great - Innovation is Great 1

Did you know that Britain is a world leader when it comes to innovation? Some of the world's fastest cars, cleverest gadgets and even the technology inside this phone are made here. Britain is full of new ideas and cutting edge technology and I'm hoping to see some of it.

The British love gadgets. And when it comes to innovators, James Dyson is world-class. He invented the bagless vacuum cleaner and this is his headquarters, where all the magic happens.

It took five years, over 5,000 prototypes and a lot of hard work and imagination to design Dyson's Bagless Vacuum Cleaner.

Tom Crawford is a senior engineer.

Richard: Howdo Dyson push the boundaries of innovation and technology?

Tom: We employ over 650 engineers and scientists to look at every aspect of our machine. We develop our own motors. We have microbiologists, fluid experts,noise experts, to really optimise every aspect of the performance of these machines.

Richard: How do you meet the needs of the international market?

Tom: Well,we sell our machines in over 50 different countries, so wehave a really good understanding of what they want and what they need and, for example, for Japan,we know that their rooms are much smaller and we design a product to suit theirdemands, which is much smaller than the European models.

Richard: Excellent. Can you show me round your latest technology?

Tom: Yeah,please.

Richard: Ah.I've used one of these before. Yeah, they're excellent.

Tom: Dyson Airblade is the fastest, most hygienic hand dryer. It uses a Dyson digitalmotor which rotates at over 5 times the speed of a Formula 1 engine. It pushes air out up to 400 miles an hour and dries your hands in under 10 seconds.

Richard: Awesome. What about this here?

Tom: OK. Experts in moving air. We've looked at the domestic fan and we' ve produced a bladeless fan which pulls air through the middle. It's very smooth,non-buffeting air flow and it's very safe.

Richard: That's excellent, isn't it? Ooh, it doubles up nicely as a hair drier, too...How are you going to go into the future for Dyson?

Tom: Well, I can't tell you what our secrets are, obviously.

Richard: Go on!

Tom: No! But we've got a very exciting plan of products for the next 10 years, a plan of research for the next twenty years and we're also, obviously, looking to launch fantastically exciting products, like the new Dyson Digital Slim. Now this uses another Dyson digital motor, which is very light weight and powerful.

Richard: No cord?

Tom: No cord. Cordless. Batteries. Have a go.

Richard: Got to. Got to have a go. Smooth. Loving that. Tell you what Tom, thank you verymuch for showing me round. While I'm here, do you want me to just quickly...um...?

Tom: Yeah, just tidy up for us.

Richard: Feel free. No worries. Thank you. Cheers.

Tom: Thanks. OK.