A video of Dyson engineers using their cutting-edge bladeless fans to move a balloon around the factory has become a YouTube sensation.
The video shows designers setting up an obstacle course using the company’s new bladeless ”Air Multiplier” fans.
They then release a blue balloon which gets sucked through tunnels made by the fans as it travels around the factory – without ever being touched by human hands.
Engineers were able to send the balloon round loop-the-loops, up spiral staircases and around corners.
It was uploaded by staff at the Wiltshire-based factory on May 24th and has already garnered more than 185,000 views on YouTube.
One engineer said: ”It is great that so many people are seeing it.
”We started with the idea of showing where the air comes from and where it goes, because with our fan there appears to be no moving parts, unlike fans that have blades.”
The two-minute video was made by the proud designers of the bladeless fan to show off how it manages to suck air from one side of a ring and out the other.
In the video, the balloon is sucked from one bladeless fan to the next along a crazy course that runs throughout the factory.
The videos makers swear there is no camera trickery used and that the balloon was not pulled or guided at any stage.
A Dyson spokesman said the engineers made the video after they were set the challenge of showing how ”inducement and entrainment of air” works with the new fans.
He said: ”Lots of experimentation with different sized balloons and other objects produced this video.
”Although edited to include our successful attempts, the video is genuine footage – and no, the balloon is not attached to anything.”
The fan works by sucking 27 litres of air a second through small vents in the base by an electric motor.
The air is then propelled through a tiny slit, just three millimetres wide, at an astonishing 55 miles per hour.
It then passes over a shaped ramp which channels its direction and as it is pushed out of the fan it propels the air surrounding it as well.
