Dyson Air Multiplier bladeless fan shoots the breeze ... for $300
A new fan – just in time for ... fall?
The minds behind the vacuum that sucks even when it's full (ba-dum ching!) and the hand dryer that cuts down on waste and the time you have to spend with that bad date are back with a new invention – the Dyson Air Multiplier.
With a look that's equal parts giant magnifying glass and Eye of Sauron (seriously – the thing follows your mouse on the company homepage, if the site isn't still down), the 'bladeless' desktop fan from Dyson cuts an imposing profile – one-upped only by its "didn't iPods used to cost this much?" price. It's all in the name of an uninterrupted stream of air that's devoid of "unpleasant buffeting." (When has a buffet ever been unpleasant? Oh man, we're rolling today!)
How's it work? While there aren't clever commercials out yet, our sources (read: this page) tell us that a brushless motor draws air into the base where it's accelerated by supercharger-like technologies, then passed over a ring-shaped 16º airfoil-shaped ramp. Then, air behind the ring gets "induced" into the flow, and finally, air in front of the ring can't stand it anymore, joining the party through "entrainment."
Rest assured: if you buy one of these for the office, you will be explaining that spiel to everyone who happens by your desk. But maybe that's the thing the person who buys a $300 fan is looking for – similar to the guy in the airplane seat next to you who just has to explain the auditory principles at work in his ginormous noise-canceling headphones ("that sounds great right about now! Mind if I give them a try?")
Like its Airblade hand dryers, the Dyson Air Multiplier is a cool idea and definitely a conversation starter, but if cryptically accelerated air is of interest to you, something tells this blogger that a better use of $300 might be to buy you and your 19 closest friends an Airzooka.
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