Dyson Air Multiplier Fan Unveiled

The Dyson Air Multiplier fan continues Dyson's track record of taking existing technology and repackaging it for mass consumer markets. (Bagless vacuum cleaners etc.) The newest Dyson product is a bladeless fan consisting of a thin airfoil ring mounted atop a round column.

Visually it resembles a magnifying glass stood on its handle. The ring has an open slot on the inner surface from which a thin stream of air jets out at a speed of 55mph. Inside of the column in a turbine that drives the air. By the way, turbines contain blades, so strictly speaking, this cant be called a bladeless fan.

The device, which will sell for 199 pounds in the UK, has been in development for 4 years, according to Sir Dyson. A typical desk fan is priced at about one tenth the Air Multipliers price.

How does the Air Multiplier work?

It draws in air through a hole at its base, into the turbine, which expels it at a greater speed through the gap in the fan's ring. The air then flows outward over the ring's aerodynamic surface, which has a cross section shaped like an airplanes wing. Ambient air is drawn into the air flow owing to the pressure differential created, inducing a greater air flow. For every 1 unit of air the fan sucks in at the base, 15 units of air are expelled (405 liters per second) and circulated, which is why it is called the Air Multiplier fan. How the companys marketers will get people to shell out ten times more for this remains to be seen.