In all of history there have really only been three changes in fan technology. 1st you had yourself or someone else wave an object to push air in your direction. Then you had bellows that drew air into a bladder and then could be forcefully pushed out. Last, after the discovery of electricity you have the electric fan that works by spinning angled blades to push the air. (Really it's eactly like the first method, other than it happens alot faster.
Well, leave it to vacuum genius, Dyson, to come up with a better way.
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Are you caught in the dog days of summer, sweating it out? Well, neither are we, but that's not stopping Dyson from coming out with one of the most innovative ways to push air since the fan.
Unlike the original fan, though, with its blade-based design, Dyson's new Air Multiplier creates a smooth, uninterrupted stream of air. This will be a huge plus for those who are bothered by the "unpleasant buffeting" created by traditional fan designs.
How does it work? Dyson described in its press release: "Air is drawn into the base of the machine. The air is forced up into the loop amplifier and accelerated through the 1.3mm annular aperture, creating a jet of air that hugs the airfoil-shaped ramp. While exiting the loop amplifier, the jet pulls air from behind the fan into the airflow (inducement). At the same time, the surrounding air from the front and sides of the machine are forced into the air stream (entrainment), amplifying it 15 times. The result is a constant uninterrupted flow of cooling air."
Apparently, the new fan design is a product of four years of work by Dyson’s fluid dynamics engineers, who ran hundreds of simulations. Air fluctuations were mapped with "Laser Doppler Anemometry," helping measure control the machine’s airflow.
“We realised that this inducement, or amplification, effect could be further enhanced by passing airflow over a ramp,” said James Dyson. “And of course this was the point where the idea of a bladeless fan became a real possibility. Here was a way to create turbulent-free air and finally do away with blades.”
While many of us don't have a problem with the traditional spinning blade fan, there's nothing to say that something better can't be built. Dyson's done it, and now we'll see if the new innovative design will be one that will eventually replace what we've been using for as long as I can remember.
Don't expect that living on the edge of fan technology to be cheap, however, as the 10-inch models run for $300, and the supreme 12-inch model is $330.
