Magic Over Logic Product Design

"Magic - the unique way a product does what it does - is never to be underestimated. With the Dual Cyclone's see-through bin, every-"

"As I began to develop the cyclone, I thought it would be worth having a look at what had been written on the subject, for if there were simple mathematical models for the principle, it would be easy to work out how best to design the thing. This was not a fruitful exercise. I have one book which has at least six different formulae for explain- ing the movement of particles in a cyclone; they all seem to contradict each other; and they are all useless (three of these incomprehensible algebraic confections are shown below, just for fun)."

"You could, theoretically, write a formula which would tell you whether or not a particular cyclone would separate a particular micron size, but that would depend on only one kind of particle, with a single micron size, entering it. In reality, what you get are thousands of different sizes of particle entering. The smaller ones get caught up in the slipstream of the larger ones - indeed, the slipstream of one group of particles will pull along with it whole colonies of much tinier ones - so that much smaller particles than you would expect a particular cyclone to collect will follow the larger ones into it. Like many industrialists, the particle has an insurmountable sheep mentality."