Diesoon v. Numatic Re: Those were the days!

[Bill Wright]

That's a falacy put about by vacuum cleaner firms. Most of the skin we shed gets washed off so it goes down the drain.

Bill

[Steve Terry]

They do, they're called Tornados, only they don't usually quite reach Space

Steve Terry

[Steve Thackery]

It's interesting, isn't it, how it seems to be impossible to make a stable levitating platform just using magnets.

I keep trying to visualise various arrangements of magnetic poles which ought to work, but of course have never succeeded.

I've owned two or three levitating toys in the past, but all of them rely on a closed loop electromagnetic control system, rather than passive magnets. Perhaps the most impressive was the one which relied on the object spinning really fast like a top to produce gyroscopic forces - it hovered higher than any of the others and didn't require anything above it, so it really did seem to be in mid-air.

More recently I bought one which doesn't require the object to spin, but the hovering height isn't very impressive.

The only hovering effect from passive magnetic fields I've seen is due to the paramagnetic effect. You arrange an array of magnetic cubes in a certain way, and then hover a tiny piece of diamagnetic material over it. Again, though, the hovering distance is very small, and it certainly wouldn't support a settee!

SteveT

[Steve Firth]

I think you need to get out of London then you can appreciate that the place is sick.

[Chris J Dixon]

I can't agree with this. London Transport have a lot of problems with dirt and dust in their tunnels. Scientific analysis shows that this contains a significant proportion of skin, hair and clothing fibres.

Chris

[PeterC]

About 10 years ago I was chasing some information; the chap said that he'd posted it to me. About 3 - 4 months later I found the envelope under the vac. It had drifted there from the letter flap.

[Tim Streater]

+1

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Oh I do get about a bit. But can assure you in the parts of London I'm most familiar with, the most common dogs ain't 'fighting breeds' I can only assume you're familiar with some of the sink housing estates. And fighting dogs will be common there the country over.

However, even a so called fighting breed can be a good pet. It's to do with how it is treated from a puppy. Same as most animals including humans.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Is your house commonly packed full of people so tightly they can barely move?

[Bill Wright]

Did you move the vac to dust behind it?

Incidentally, some years ago I was installing an aerial and working in the backyard of the house, near the french windows. It started to snow and the lady of the house thought my snow-laden appearance hilarious enough to photograph, moving an easy chair to one side and opening the french windows to do so. The snow turned into a blizzard so I dusted myself down and stepped through into the house. Unfortunately I had walked in some fresh dog shit that had been hidden under the snow, and it got on the carpet in some considerable quantity. I offered to clean it up but the lady said gaily, "Oh, I'll just put the chair back over it. I'll mention it to the cleaner on Thursday."

Bill

[Steve Walker]

Nah, fit the robot with four small hydraulic jacks and hoses and it can place one near each corner and jack the furniture up!

SteveW

[J G Miller]

A good alternative suggestion. Of course the software will need to be calibrated to check that nobobdy is sitting on the chesterfield at the time!

[John Williamson]

[Steve Terry]

But does it actually suck worth a dam?

Steve Terry

[Steve Walker]

I'd be far more worried that it'd try to jack up someone who stood still for too long or a sleeping cat!

SteveW

[Tim Streater]

Well the transparent dust cylinder jobby fills up on a regular basis as we use the machine (DC01 in my case). I suppose the dust/cat hairs, etc

*could* be being teleported in from the neighbour's carpets but that seems unlikely.

[Steve Firth]

Is Isleworth a sink housing estate? That area seemed to be rife with them. I spent quite a bit of time around Syon Park and despite having lovely rover views, some very nice pubs and restaurants I loathed the place because of the aggressive bastards and their dogs on the street. Apparently it is a very popular area with folk in the "meeja" or was, most of them seemed to be BBC staff with a need to be close(ish) to Shepherd's Minge.

Well the ones I see on the street or in the Royal Parks seem to be trained to lock their jaws and to hang on until something is dead.

[Andy Champ]

Apparently not. My hair (what's left of it!) is far too long.

Andy

[Steve Thackery]

My friends have the DC01 I sold them years ago (which I bought when they first came out). It always sucked pretty well, and of course it's just the same now as it always was.

I've never heard of Dysons being unreliable or short-lived; the biggest complaint is that they are bloody heavy and awkward to carry about, and too bleedin' noisy. My DC01 was so bad I used to wear ear defenders when doing the vacuuming.

There's another shortcoming of the bagless system - it's hazardous emptying the canister into your dustbin on a windy day because you are almost bound to end up with a faceful of dust.

Personally I've gone back to a bagged Hoover. OK, so the bags cost a quid each, but I get a few round-the-house-cleans for that, so I don't care.

SteveT

[J G Miller]

On Monday, July 4th, 2011 at 19:50:08h +0100, John Williamson asked:

The person sitting on the chesterfield may have an aversion to heights ;)

You would not want them to have a heart attack would you? (Think of the legal battles that would ensue.)