SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY

Dyson's Bladeless Fan: Worth the Hefty Cost?

from Time

Dyson Inc.'s new bladeless electric fan resembles anything but a fan. The company calls it an "air multiplier." To the average sci-fi enthusiast, it looks like a miniature replica of a stargate--but, alas, this gadget does not create a wormhole that teleports people to distant worlds.

When introduced recently to students in a cafeteria at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the ring-shaped contraption immediately drew curious onlookers. "It's clearly a fan," said engineering student Sergei Bernstein, 18, placing his palm before the draft of cool air flowing from the circular frame. "But it looks completely different, very modern," said his friend John Berman, 17.

It's no surprise that Dyson, the company behind the bagless vacuum cleaner, would devise a bladeless fan. Since the invention of the electric fan in the late 19th century, the air-stirring apparatus has not changed in any significant way--a quick Google image search suggests that every model from the classic 1950s table fan to the industrial exhaust fan to something called the batman fan has one consistent, characteristic feature: rotating blades. But Dyson did away with those, replacing them with a graceful ring set atop a cylindrical base.