INVENTOR James Dyson, best known for the bagless vacuum cleaner, now wants to compactify our kitchens.
In a US patent application filed last week, Dyson and his colleagues Peter Gammack and David Campbell describe a cunning way to save space on overcrowded kitchen worktops by radically changing the design of the gadgets that typically clutter them.
The Dyson team say the trouble with today鈥檚 kettles, toasters, juicers, food mixers and coffee grinders is that each type of gadget tends to have a different space-hogging design. Kettles tend to be jug or dome-shaped, with a protruding handle and flex on one side, and a spout on the other. Toasters are generally box shaped, with the timing and toast ejection mechanisms protruding from one end. That means users must leave a large 鈥渇ootprint鈥� around each appliance so that their handles and controls can be reached easily.
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鈥淒ue to their various different shapes and sizes, these appliances cannot be closely packed together on the counter, resulting in an amount of wasted counter space between the appliances which can鈥檛 be used for other purposes, such as food preparation,鈥� the Dyson team write.
鈥淒ue to their various shapes and sizes, appliances can鈥檛 be closely packed together, resulting in wasted space鈥�
Their answer, given in patent filing , is a simple one: make all free-standing gadgets like kettles, toasters, juicers and food mixers in the shape of tall cuboids that can easily be pushed together on a worktop, with no wasted space between them. As the controls could be recessed in their flat lids or on the front panels, no space-wasting side access is required. The patent also suggests connecting the appliances together 鈥� presumably using a common power supply.
The Dyson company, based in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, UK, won鈥檛 say when it plans to market such machines. 鈥淥ur teams are working on a number of new technologies,鈥� says a Dyson spokesman. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 reveal any more for now.鈥�
More culinary innovation comes from the British R&D firm . At a conference in London this year, its engineers came up with ideas for washer-dryers with interchangeable drums, to allow smaller washes, and adaptive fridge-freezers that change compartment sizes depending on how much food they contain. More ambitiously, they suggested shape-shifting crockery that people could bend into a plate, bowl or cup.
