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James Dyson has changed the face of vacuum cleaning with his dual cyclone
design. Now his firm is patenting a pencil sharpener that works on the same
principle (GB 2359279). Dyson’s DC05 vacuum cleaner separates dust from air by
creating a rapid swirl of air that acts like a centrifuge. The pencil sharpener
will look like a miniature DC05 and separate light wood shavings from heavier
graphite fragments with a similar vortex. As you sharpen the pencil, the
shavings move outwards and collect in a ring-shaped outer compartment, while the
graphite drops straight down into a central compartment. This “will be generally
pleasing to the user” says Dyson’s patent.