Pictured: Dyson invents world's smallest vacuum cleaner that is so tiny it can sit on a bookshelf



Dyson has launched its smallest vacuum cleaner to date, specifically designed for city dwellers with tiny flats.

The new City DC26 is compact enough to fit on a piece of A4 paper but, Dyson promises, packs the same punch as its larger models.

Compact: The new Dyson City DC26 is small enough to fit on a piece of A4 paper

The vacuum cleaner is the first the company has launched in the UK for two years and costs' for £250.

Created from scratch with 275 parts re-engineered and miniatured by Dyson's technicians, the DC26 comes with 13 inner cyclones which suck dirt out of the air using centrifugal force.

Tiny friend: James Dyson standing beside his company's latest vacuum cleaner

Inventor Sir James Dyson said: 'It took us five years to painstakingly compress and rebuild every single component before we had a machine that was a third smaller than its predecessor, yet could still tackle dirt like bigger machines.'

At 3.25kg the DC26 weighs less than some laptops but, despite its tiny proportions, was built for toughness.

Dyson claims it withstood 5,318 drops onto a hard floor and 10,000 pummels against a metal wall during testing.

The smallest Dyson cleaner is a handheld device. It is meant for cleaning cars and small indoor areas rather than an entire home.

Sir James's r elatively simple idea for a bagless vacuum cleaner has earned him a reputed £1billion.

In November he was reported to have treated his children to a share of his huge fortune - giving them a cool £15million each.

The three Dyson offspring have been bequeathed shares worth a total of £45 million, in a move that bucks the trend for entrepreneurs to make extravagant donations to charity and leave little to their children.

The Dyson children received their windfall through a buy-back transaction of their father's company shares, according to documents filed at Companies House. The deal took place shortly before the capital gains tax levied on such deals was increased from 10 per cent to 18 per cent.



