The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-10-23

Pepys In his diary in 1862 of trim
ming ones self with pumice stone,
which ] learned of Mr.. March and
found 1t very easy. speedy and pleas
ant, has not come into common use.
What the Egyptians used to rid them
selves so carefully of their boards we
do not know, but In Etruscan tombs
archaeologists have found razors OF
flint and bronze which must have
been placed there as early as 900 b. e.
Bronze razors of peculiar shape have
been found In the British Isle. Cortez
found the Aztecs diligently chopping
OF their boards with pieces of a nat
ural volcanic substance known as OBJ
sidian, which must have been even
worse than the flint. and other extra
ordinary substitutes for steel have
been adopted by suffering humanity.
The First safety Razor.
1t remained for American inventors
to upset the customs of the centuries
in order to help the man who Yields
razor. The first step was designed
merely to protect the unsldllful and, by
placing the blade In a sort of cage, the
SAFETY razor was made. Then Mr.. King
Q. Gillette, recognizing the fact that
the average mans greatest difficulty
when he shaves IL the sharpening of
the razor, bent his energies to the pro-
dHction OF blade which could be USED
ten, fifteen or twenty minutes, with
out losing Its edge. His first attempt
was made by grinding a watch spring
to an edge. 1t worked well enough to
encourage him to continue his expert
ments, and later he succeeded In pro-
ducing blades which while no thicker
than piece of paper and no larger
than one of the postage stamps struck
70 commemorate a worlds fair. could
be used not once but many times. Thus
the possessor Of a bunch of blades and
q handle with which to hold them.
would have potential shaves of q num-
Der sufficient to keep his chin and
cheeks smooth for months. and when
all the blades were dulled they could
be exchanged for others
From stone Razors 60 steel Blades.
The making OF such razor blades
called for new machines and processes.
From the ages of stone and brass down
to the present, the razor maker has
held the flint, obsidlan or steel In his
own fingers as he shaped and ground
II, and razors have been stropped by
hand under the shadows of the pyra-
mids and In the barber shops of Inn
nerial Rome, but to-day fingers of
steel are taking the place OF human
hands. One device cuts the blades
from long strip Of the metal; another
cuts holes in them; still another
smooths away rough edges A young
woman tending three small machines
Will grind 800 razor blades In a day, |
or II would be better to put IL that the !
machines do the work, for the young
woman's part consists merely in sup
plying the material and taking away |
the finished product. The man who has |
patiently or irnpatiently stropped his |
own razor finds much for admiration |
in the machines which hone and strop |
IA razor blades at a time.
The Grinding of Razor Blades.
These devices. which grind, hone ard !
strop razor blades by the hundred were |
invented by Mr.. Nickerson, a grad |
uate OF the Massachusetts, Institute of |
Technology, and are only an example |
OF the several appliances whose inven- |
ton had to precede the entrance OF the |
razor into the field OF machine made |
products. New processes were neces-
sary, for example, to make a piece of
steel Of the thickness of sheet Of pa
per that would nevertheless do the |
work OF shaving. Steel of that thick
ness tempered In the ordinary way
would curl up at the edges exactly like |
so much paper, and a new method of
had TO be worked out TO
ihdhS edpiST Nle edTly morning TASK OF
the man who shaves himself.
The ordiriary razor blade is concave
In shape. These paper blades-they
might not inappropriately be called |
such-are made concave when IN use
because they are held in curved pieces
Of brass. turned with a mathematical !
exactness so great that the variation of |
a thousandth part OF an inch is taken |
into consideration. This work is done
by a contrivance hardly larger than an
old fashioned letter press, yet IL exerts |
upon the brass a pressure OF thirteen |
tons, picking up the pieces. giving them |
the proper shape and throwing them
aside when finished.
$4,000 RaHor Blades I'm n Bunch.
How rapidly razors may be made by |
Ia curiously shown by the |
OF the machine which Is used |
In cleaning and securing them. II |
looks like a collection of ten gallon |
tanks. swaying and bobbing !
about by machinery. Securely bottled |
up inside are the razor blades, as yet |
mixed In with the various |
substances used for renovatinE them, |
each tank containing about rs 900 little |
razor blades.
Before these razor blades go 10 the /
people whose boards they viii remove
they must all be finally test ed The |
4.