[Petrochemicals (OP)]

Dyson, famed cyclone vacuum cleaners use cyclonic separation,

James Dyson himself says his inspiration came from seeing cyclonic separation of sawdust at saw Mills, so how did he gain a patent for his vacuum.

[alancalverd]

A patent is granted for a clear description of an original means of doing something, not a scientific principle. It's for invention, not discovery.

Cyclonic separation is a discovery, but how you implement it into a domestic vacuum cleaner require the invention of motors, rotors, control systems, containers, latches, brushes......and the method of assembly of these and existing invented parts into a working device. The distinction between  a patent and a design right is complex but the essence of a patent is that somebody following your method could build a device that does what you claim (so you could licence another manufacturer to build it) , whilst the design rights really refer to the appearance of a device (to prevent anyone passing off his product as yours).  It all gets a bit complicated when the patent involves aerodynamics because these pretty much determine the design and the external appearance of the machine.

As I understand it, Dyson's products incorporate lots of patents and each product also has a registered design.

[Petrochemicals (OP)]

Amazing, but still if his patent is sticking wheels on a cyclonic separator he truly is a genius.

[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey]

Hello there. I’m James Dyson. Inventor of the Dyson Vacuum….the first vacuum that doesn’t use suction. And now I’ve applied the same technology to another household necessity: the common toilet. You see, I was visiting a friend one weekend, and after taking a particularly difficult Sunday-morning squat on what I thought was a pretty good British commode, I was besmirched by it's lousy suction. I realized there must be something terribly wrong with this design. I took the toilet apart and discovered the problem: A small amount of my fecal discard was hopelessly clogged. So I decided to design something better. And a few thousand prototypes later I had it….the Dyson Toilet.  [The toilet is exactly like the vacuum but with a toilet bowl attached to it]
The first toilet that doesn’t use suction! It handles this massive load of pumpkin ravioli.

[James deposits the ravioli in the toilet bowl. A hard flush takes the ravioli into the transparent dust bag. It's a mess of water, meat, pasta, and tomato sauce all smeared in the see-through bag.]
And those ravioli were quite dense. It’s brilliant, isn’t it?

The Dyson Toilet….the first toilet that doesn’t require a plunger.

SNL

[Petrochemicals (OP)]

Hello there. I’m James Dyson. Inventor of the Dyson Vacuum….the first vacuum that doesn’t use suction. And now I’ve applied the same technology to another household necessity: the common toilet. You see, I was visiting a friend one weekend, and after taking a particularly difficult Sunday-morning squat on what I thought was a pretty good British commode, I was besmirched by it's lousy suction. I realized there must be something terribly wrong with this design. I took the toilet apart and discovered the problem: A small amount of my fecal discard was hopelessly clogged. So I decided to design something better. And a few thousand prototypes later I had it….the Dyson Toilet.  [The toilet is exactly like the vacuum but with a toilet bowl attached to it]
The first toilet that doesn’t use suction! It handles this massive load of pumpkin ravioli.

[James deposits the ravioli in the toilet bowl. A hard flush takes the ravioli into the transparent dust bag. It's a mess of water, meat, pasta, and tomato sauce all smeared in the see-through bag.]
And those ravioli were quite dense. It’s brilliant, isn’t it?

The Dyson Toilet….the first toilet that doesn’t require a plunger.

SNL

He probably would get a suction toilet patent somehow, even though they are already in existence.