First Safety Razor was Invented at Boston in 1901 First Disposable Razor Blade (1901) King Camp Gillette (1855-1932) and William Emery Nickerson invented the world's first disposable razor blade in 1901. Until that time, portable shaving devices consisted of a wedge shaped heavy metal (forged) blade on top of a handle. When dull, the wedge was stropped by hand until it could no longer keep a sharp edge. It is said traveling salesmen referred to such shaving devices as cut-throat razors, as they were quite dangerous to use on a train. Gillette conceived the idea of a disposable blade in 1895. He was told by leading metallurgists of the day that it was economically unfeasible to mass produce (stamp) such thin pieces of sharpened metal. He soon met W.E. Nickerson, and after six years they were able to invent the equipment necessary to produce the first disposable blade. They patented the invention in 1901 and started the American Safety Razor Company (re-named the Gillette Safety Razor Company in 1904). King Gillette The safety razor was a huge success.

By 1910, King Gillette was a millionaire. His portrait was printed on every package of blades, which gained him great celebrity. In personal life he believed in utopian concepts, and wrote a number of books promoting common social advancement. Sadly, Gillette lost most of his fortune in the stock market crash of 1929. The Gillette Company thrived independently for 101 years, and was purchased by brand-savvy Proctor & Gamble Company in 2005. King C. Gillette was a also marketing pioneer. He invented the Razors and Blades Business Model of selling razors at little or no profit, and making more money by selling great quantities of high quality disposable blades for those razors (today known as the Freebie Marketing Model). The Gillette Company has also been a text book product life-cycle innovator, with new features or products introduced every few years. This author has used the Trac II, Atra, Sensor, and Mach III (tm's) products over the past 30 years, and looks forward to future generations of shaving technology.

In 1926, Gillette built a large home on 588 acres of land in Calabasas, California. The mansion was later owned by Clarence Brown, a famous MGM film director, and then by comedian Bob Hope and others. The property is now a state park called King Gillette Ranch, and was thankfully preserved. ﻿ The Histories of Best Known Razors and Shavers By Mary Bellis Updated August 04, 2016. Men have been slaves to their facial hair – trimming it or getting rid of it entirely – pretty much since they first walked upright. A couple of inventors have made the process easier over the years and their razors and shavers are still widely used today. Gillette® Razors Patent No. 775,134 was granted to King C. Gillette for a “safety razor” on November 15, 1904. King Camp Gillette was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin in 1855 and became a traveling salesman to support himself after his family’s home was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. This work led him to William Painter, the inventor of the disposable Crown Cork bottle cap.

Painter told Gillette that a successful invention was one that was purchased over and over again by satisfied customers, and Gillette took this advice to heart. After several years of considering and rejecting possible inventions, Gillette suddenly had a brilliant idea while shaving one morning in 1895. An entirely new razor flashed in his mind—one with a safe, inexpensive and disposable blade. American men would no longer have to regularly send their razors out for sharpening. They could toss out their old blades and reapply new ones. Gillette’s invention would fit neatly in the hand, minimizing cuts and nicks. It was genius, but it took another six years for Gillette’s idea to reach fruition. Technical experts told Gillette that it was impossible to produce steel that was hard enough, thin enough and inexpensive enough for commercial development of the disposable razor blade. Then MIT graduate William Nickerson agreed to try in 1901. By 1903, Nickerson had succeeded. Production of the Gillette® safety razor and blade began when the Gillette Safety Razor Company began operations in South Boston. Sales grew steadily. The U.S.

government issued Gillette safety razors to the entire armed forces during World War I, and some 3.5 million razors and 32 million blades were put into military hands. An entire nation was converted to the Gillette® safety razor by the end of the war. Gillette began sponsoring international sporting events in the 1970s, including the Gillette Cricket Cup, the FIFA World Cup and Formula One racing. Schick® Razors Inventive U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Schick first conceived of the electric razor that initially bore his name in 1921. Colonel Schick patented the first such razor in November 1928 after deciding that a dry shave was the way to go. The Magazine Repeating Razor Company was born. Schick subsequently sold his interest in the company to American Chain and Cable who continued to sell the razor until 1945. AC&C introduced the Schick Injector Razor in 1935 for which Schick held the patent. The Eversharp Company ultimately bought the rights to the razor in 1946.

The Magazine Repeating Razor Company became the Schick Safety Razor Company, using the same razor concept to launch a similar product for women in 1947. Teflon-coated stainless steel blades were introduced in 1963 for a smoother shave. All the while, Eversharp slid its own name in on the product, sometimes in conjunction with the Schick logo and finally on its own before going back to Schick in 1965. The Razor Blade: History's Cutting Edge : Culture: Scientists know that ancient man shaved. But the razor was an undocumented implement until 1290. - latimes The Razor Blade: History's Cutting Edge : Culture: Scientists know that ancient man shaved. But the razor was an undocumented implement until 1290. July 26, 1992 |THOMAS V. DiBACCO | THE WASHINGTON POST Razors and razor blades have many uses, from personal hygiene to cutting a sewing stitch to opening a cardboard box sealed with heavy-duty tape. But the razor took a long time to evolve to its present multifaceted use.

That ancient man shaved is certain (conceivably with sharp-edged seashells or rocks); barbers were mentioned in antiquity, as was the shaving of heads. But not until the Middle Ages was a specific implement identified as a razor. The Oxford English Dictionary notes the year 1290 for the first use of the term. A razor industry was thriving by the 18th Century, associated with cutlery products in Sheffield, England. The razor contained a blade, which curved slightly backward and was thicker on the back than on the cutting edge. It was attached to a swivel mechanism to house it in a handle case when not in use. Ralph Waldo Emerson ventured to Sheffield in 1856 and, he said, "was shown the process of making a razor." Although numerous inventors tried to devise ways to keep the razor's sharp edge from cutting the skin, it was King Camp Gillette, a Wisconsin-born salesman, who persevered in the quest for a safety appliance. But it was a long way from Gillette's first efforts in 1895 to actual marketing of his gizmo in 1903.

The problem was not the razor and its protective housing, which allowed only a small part of the double-edged blade to be exposed, thereby reducing the likelihood of cutting the skin. Rather, the challenge was to fashion a steel blade that was very thin, strong, inexpensive--and safe. Still, the first year of marketing was a bummer for Gillette, who sold only 51 razors, at $5 each, and 168 blades. Three years later, however, word about Gillette's bloodless means of shaving had spread, and about 300,000 razors and twice as many blades had been sold. For two decades Gillette, living up to his name, was king of the razor industry. Then came the ingenuity of the Roaring '20s and, in particular, that of an American army officer, Lt. Col. Jacob Schick. Exasperated over having to heat water for shaving during a stint in frigid weather in British Columbia, Schick in 1928 came up with an electric razor with a protective mesh cover over the blades that ensured both safety and speed.

First marketed in 1931 at $25, Schick's shaver sold well even in Depression times, especially as the price fell to $15. But the big money was still in the standard model developed by Gillette, leading numerous other inventors to search for a new wrinkle. One notable enterpriser was William Gibbs McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury from 1913 to 1918 under his father-in-law, President Woodrow Wilson. First registered in 1934 under Patent No. 1,953,248, McAdoo's razor appeared to have an edge on Gillette's because it allowed the user to insert a blade without taking the razor apart. The only problem was that Gillette's company also had perfected that method of inserting the blade and threatened to sue McAdoo for patent infringement. On advice from his attorney, McAdoo gave up his razor dream in 1937, and the rest, as they say, is history--for Gillette's company.

So dependent were Americans on the safety razor by the 1930s that home medicine cabinets typically were manufactured with slots for tossing used razor blades, which fell into the deep recesses of the unfinished area between wall studs. But in 1975, the French company Bic, which had pioneered developing a disposable pen and lighter, came up with what appeared to be a better idea: an inexpensive throwaway razor. With a single-edged blade and a light plastic handle (total weight was less than half an ounce), Bic became the disposable generation's answer to a quick shave. But not for long. Gillette's Good News disposable battled Bic's model, and numerous companies joined the race for disposable razor profits. Yet despite all the competition among disposable, cartridge-blade and electric razor manufacturers, some Americans still rely on history rather than modern technology. They use open-blade Sheffield-style razors--and claim, of course, that it results in a better shave. MORE: A Brief History of Shaving | Mental Floss A Brief History of Shaving Image credit: Like us on Facebook Most of us pick up a razor at least every couple of days, and although shaving's a little tedious, it's not too much of a hassle.

It hasn't always been quite so easy, though. Let's take a look at the history of shaving. It Could Get a Little Rough Pre-Gillette In the days before razors, you could either sport a hirsute look or get creative. Records drawn on cave walls show prehistoric people shaving with clamshells, flint knives, and even shark teeth. It's not clear when these crude implements gave way to what we now think of as razors. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, circular solid gold or copper razors can be found as far back as the 4th millennium BC in some Egyptian tombs. Still other cultures sharpened volcanic obsidian glass and used those. Another story posits that the Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Priscus introduced the razor to his people in the 6th century BC, but shaving didn't really catch on with Romans for another hundred years or so. In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great encouraged his men to shave so enemies couldn't grab their beards during melees. Alexander's subjects were often shaved using a novacila, a block of iron with one edge sharpened, which sounds like a great way to shred your face.

Julius Caesar supposedly preferred to have his beard plucked out with tweezers, although other Roman men used razors or rubbed the beards from their faces using pumice stones. (Ouch!) It Didn't Get Safe Until 1828 Designs for safety razors date back to at least 1762, but they didn't really catch on until 1828, when they debuted in Sheffield, England. In 1847 William Henson invented the hoe-shaped razor that most of us have in our medicine cabinets, and in 1895 a traveling salesman named King Camp Gillette (pictured) combined this shape with the idea of shaving with a disposable double-edged blade. The resulting safety razor eventually made Gillette a fortune and solved the hassle of having to remove the razor's blade to sharpen it every few shaves. The idea was great, but there was a problem: the blades weren't easy to make. It took another six years for Gillette to find someone who could actually make the disposable blades.

MIT professor William Nickerson joined up with Gillette to figure out a way to stamp the blades out of sheets of high-carbon steel, and by 1903 they had their first batch of razors ready to take on America's beards. By 1906 Gillette's design was moving 300,000 units a year. Interestingly, Gillette sold the razors at a loss, but he more than made up for it by selling the blades at a huge profit. Although Gillette's invention came from his notion that he should invent something people bought, threw away, and then repurchased, he wasn't your typical capitalist. He became a strong proponent of utopian socialism later in his life and planned a community in Arizona in which engineers would rationally orchestrate all activity. Gillette even offered Teddy Roosevelt $1 million to serve as president of this planned utopia in 1910, but Roosevelt declined. Things Got Electric in the Twenties People have been patenting and trying to market electric razors since 1900, but at first they met with little success.

(One failed model from 1910 ran on clockwork.) In 1928 a retired Army colonel named Jacob Schick patented an electric razor he had designed, and the world finally had a winner. Schick razors took store shelves by storm in 1931, and they quickly sold millions of units. The real winners in this transition from wet shaving with soap and a brush to electric razors were badgers. Their hair had been highly prized for wet shaving brushes because it retained water so well, so more than a few badgers were spared a shearing as America started plugging in their electric Schicks. Like King Camp Gillette, Jacob Schick was a bit of an odd duck. Part of the reason he went into the shaving business was that he really, really believed in the benefits of shaving. In fact, Schick supposedly thought that if a man shaved often enough, he could lengthen his life to 120 years. The Real Arms Race Started in the 1960s After years of losing market share to their electric competition, Gillette finally hit upon a winning innovation in 1960 when it introduced stainless steel blades.

These newer blades were tougher to hone, but they lasted much longer and didn't rust. Consumers loved them. Bic introduced the first totally disposable razors in the sixties as well, which made shaving even more convenient. Gillette struck another blow in 1971 when it introduced the two-blade razor. Other companies followed suit, and now it's just a matter of time before we're all shaving with a 17-bladed behemoth. [Image courtesy of Wikimedia .] No. 738: King Camp Gillette KING CAMP GILLETTE Click here for audio of Episode 738. Today, the razor blade king tries to reform society. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. In 1895 King Camp Gillette was the salesman for the man who invented cork-lined bottle caps. "Invent something people use and throw away," the man told him. It'd sure worked for him. Gillette wondered what he might invent. It hit him one morning while he was shaving. He thought up the safety razor, but he couldn't figure how to make good disposible blades. For years he struggled.

Finally he met William Nickerson. Nickerson was a fine inventor. This was a fine challenge. Nickerson finally saw that he could make the blade wide. He could let the holder bend it into position. Then he'd have both accuracy and a sharp edge. Together, Gillette and Nickerson began making safety razors in 1903. The next question was what to name the thing. If they called a razor blade a Nickerson, that was too suggestive of nicked skin. In the end Gillette's name attached to the invention, and his face rode on the razor blade wrapper. Within a few years Gillette was a millionaire. Now that's only the first half of Gillette's story. Howard Mansfield tells the rest, and it gets very interesting. The year before he cooked up the safety razor, Gillette published a book on another idea entirely. It was terrifying and idealistic. His Utopian socialistic world would be based on universal cooperation. All production would be done efficiently by one great company with all people as shareholders. "Selfishness would be unknown, and war would be a barbarism of the past," he wrote. He imagined all 60 million Americans living in one great Metropolis.

It'd be powered by the Niagara River. It'd have a hundred million rooms and be served by vast common dining halls. Before WW-I he tried to set up his World Corporation -- this time in the Arizona Territory. He asked Teddy Roosevelt to be its president. When that failed, he turned to social reformer and writer Upton Sinclair. Sinclair arranged a disastrous meeting between Gillette and Henry Ford. The two millionaires talked past each other. Finally, they simply shouted in anger. Sinclair also helped Gillette with his most cogent statement -- a book called The People's Corporation . Even that was naive at best. Stuart Chase said that his sincerity was deep and compelling. "... but his solution is quite untouched by the realities which guard the road to Utopia." In his last years Gillette tried to extract oil from shale. He still had his inventive verve. But he carried his socialism to the grave. He didn't see that the simple elegance of his safety razor was no match for the complexity of human affairs. I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work. (Theme music) Gillette, K.C., The Human Drift .

Boston: New Era Publishing Co., 1894. (This was the first of several books in which Gillette set down his ideas. The dedication reads: "The thoughts herein contained are dedicated to all mankind; for to all the hope of escape from an environment of injustice, poverty, and crime, is equally desirable.") Gillette, K.C., The People's Corporation . New York: Boni and Liveright Publishers, 1924. (This was Gillette's last book, 30 years after the first. Now the dedication says simply: "To MANKIND.") mid-20th century Gillette blade provided by St. John Antiques, Galveston From Electricity in Everyday Life, 1904. The Niagara Falls powerhouse in 1904. This is what Gillette had in mind as the powerhouse for his Utopian community. The Engines of Our Ingenuity is Copyright © 1988-1997 by John H. Lienhard.

The Safety Razor – A History | guernseydonkey.com Home » General Interest » The Safety Razor – A History The Safety Razor – A History Published on May 11, 2012 in General Interest The thing to do is invent something which people have to have, but which they can use, throw away, then buy another one In the days when King Camp Gillette was a travelling salesman, he thought hard about this statement – made by the man who invented the disposable bottle cap. “I was a dreamer,” he said ‘who believed in the ‘gold at the foot of the rainbow’ promise.” He was forty when the great idea came to him one morning, while he was shaving. A razor with a cheap disposable blade! Men shaved with a razor and blade all in one, and the blade had to be resharpened whenever it got blunt. That was quite often, for each time the average man shaves, he slices off approximately twenty-five thousand bristles – the equivalent of seven yards. Why not invent a razor blade so cheap that it could be fastened into a special holder and, when no longer sharp, could simply be thrown away and replaced by a new one?

“I rushed out” said Gillette, “and bought some pieces of brass, some steel ribbon used for clock springs, a small hand vice and some files.” With these he built the first rough model. Gillette's Safety Razor That was in 1895. Gillette had the idea, now he had to develop it. For the next 6 years he struggled with ways of making a cheap, wafer-thin blade. He needed very thin, very strong steel. But he had no technical training; steel experts thought the whole idea was impossible, and friends laughed at him. Then, luckily, he met an ingenious inventor galled William Nickerson, who agreed to work on the mechanical problems. Nickerson had already invented such things as the push-button mechanism which stops a lift at a certain floor, and machinery for automatically weighing and packing cereals. Gillettes's face appeared on every packet of razor blades until 1963 The first Gillette Safety Razor company was started in 1901, above a fish shop by the Boston wharves. William Nickerson solved all the design problems, and, just as important, invented special machinery to make the razors and blades automatically.

But the company was in dreadful difficulties: it owed money, and no one would buy the razors. Gillette and Nickerson gave them away to their friends, and at last one friend recognized what a good idea the invention was and promised financial backing. It was the turning-point. In 1903, 51 razors and 168 blades were produced. Next year (when Gillette got the patent of his design) the total rose to 90,000 razors and 124,000 blades. In 1908 just under 300,000 razors and over 13 million blades were sold. By 1909 Gillette had factories in England, France, Germany and Canada and was so successful he retired to California, where he grew fruit-trees and dreamt about reorganizing the world’s economy. His face – with dark wavy hair and neat moustache – continued to appear on the front of every packet of Gillette razor blades until 1963. Shaving history … the Indians of Central America used a sharp, glassy rock called obsidian Men have been shaving their faces for thousands of years.

Bronze-age men used bronze razors, which, along with their weapons and jewellery, were often buried with them. The Indians of Central America used a sharp, glassy rock called obsidian. Even pumice stone has been tried, to grind the whiskers down. Through-out history, shaving has been in and out of fashion. Sometimes it was banned for religious reasons. On the other hand, soldiers were often discouraged from growing beards, because a beard gave the enemy far too good a hand-hold in battle! The old cut-throat razor was really rather a dangerous weapon – a sharp, unprotected thin blade – and it had to be used with skill. The first safety razor was invented in 1762 by a Frenchman, Jean-Jacques Perret. He put a guard along one side of the blade. It looked rather like a small rake, and stopped the blade from slipping into the skin. So Gillette didn’t actually invent the safgetty razor but he did significantly imprtove on it. The key difference between the safety razor and the disposable safety razor is the manufacturing of the blade. The original safety razor’s blade was forged and had to be manufactured one at a time.

The disposable safety razor’s blade was stamped metal and could be made relatively quickly and on mass. An Englishman, William Henson, invented the modem form of safety razor by setting the blade at right-angles to the handle. But safety razors took a long time to become popular. When Gillette started marketing his safety razor with disposable blades at the beginning of this century, he got involved in a big advertising war with his rivals who made ordinary razors. Barbers were frightened of losing their trade and fought against Gillette’s safe ‘do it yourself’ method. Soon, however, razors with disposable blades were themselves being challenged by an entirely new technique: dry shaving. No soap, no water, no brushes, creams or lotions, just a small machine with a moving cutter rotating or oscillating against a fixed cutter. Hairs pass through the slots of one and are cut off by the other. The first patent for this new technique was taken out by an Englishman, G. P. Appleyard, just before the First World War. In 1923 Colonel Jacob Schick got a patent for the first electric shaver – the dry-shaving method – using a powerful little motor encased in an insulated handle.

From Perret to Kampfe: Origins of the Safety Razor From Perret to Kampfe: Origins of the Safety Razor “Arose and tried to shave myself with a razor so dull that every time I scraped my face it looked as if I were in the throes of cholera morbus. By shaving often I, to a certain extent circumvent the diabolical malignity of these razors. – From the diary of Thomas A. Edison, July 13, 1885 Did King Camp Gillette really invent the safety razor? Gillette's invention, conceived – he claimed – in 1895, was indeed a true innovation – a razor with a thin, two-edged flexible blade intended to be discarded when dull. Advertisements proudly proclaimed No Stropping – No Honing. But prior to Gillette many inventors had attempted to devise a razor safer than the common folding 'cut throat' variety. Edison evidently had not yet seen the newly-invented Star Safety Razor, and he undoubtedly did not have the time to invent a less diabolical shaving instrument. Many other entrepreneurs did.

Between 1864 and December 1901, when Gillette submitted his patent application, over 100 razor guard or safety razor patents were applied for and granted by the U.S. Patent Office. Designs were also patented in France, England and undoubtedly elsewhere. Here is a sampling, in more or less chronological order, of a few of Gillette's predecessors up to the invention of the Kampfe Star razor in 1880, the first razor to be called a 'safety.' We owe a debt to the dedicated razor aficionados past and present who have preserved and researched these artifacts. It is certain that many morer examples await re-discovery. 1762 – Perrett's Innovation Who was the first to devise a safer razor?

It is believed the honor goes to Jean Jacques Perret (1730-1784) of Paris, France, a master cutler and famed author of Pogonotomie , au L'Art D'Apprende à se Raser Sol-Méme (Pogonotomie, or The Art of Shaving Oneself) in 1769 and L'Art du Coutelier ( The Art of the Cutler ) in 1771. In the former treatise, Perret described a rasoir à rabot – a plane for the beard, which he had invented in 1762 . Inspired by a carpenter's plane, it consisted of a wooden sleeve that enclosed the blade of an ordinary folding straight razor, allowing only a small portion of the edge to protrude, thus preventing one from accidentally slicing off a portion of one's ear while shaving. Perret made and sold his razor guard but apparently did not patent it. In 1787 a German publication reported that a M.

[monsieur] Lethien of Paris manufactured a "Rasiermesser à rabot, with which one can shave oneself without fear of injuries." It was sold with a 6-month warranty. From the name, this razor may have been based on Perret's idea. Razor Guards and Guard Razors According to research by Thorsten Sjölin, in July of 1799 a friedlische Rasiermesser (peaceful or pacific razor) was illustrated in a German trade journal and said to be a new idea from England. The razor was manufactured by Harwood & Co. in England and sold by Johann Christoph Roder in Leipzig, Germany. It was offered in a green-velvet-lined box together with a pair of leather strops, one black and one red, with the box fitted into a red leather case. The friedlische Rasiermesser was pictured in a 1936 German publication and described as an 1800 forerunner of the safety razor. It was a folding razor with a removable 'frame-blade.' An example of this razor, marked Poynton, is shown at right.

1847 – Henson's Guard Razors On January 10, 1847, William Samuel Henson of Somerset, England filed for a patent showing a detachable comb tooth guard for a straight folding razor and another razor employing a similar guard “…the cutting blade which of which is at right angles with the handle, and resembles somewhat the form of a common hoe.” The handle was attached by screwing it into a tapped hole in a short forged blade. This may have been first patent for a hoe-type guard razor and one of the first razors to use a short section of a straight razor as a blade. Henson specifically says that he does not claim as new “the use or adaptation of a guard or protector to the ordinary razor,” but does claim a new method of attaching the guard. Henson's guard appears to extended slightly below the the blade edge.. William S. Henson (1812-1888 ) Henson , an engineer who worked in the lacemaking industry, is best known as an aviation visionary.

With John Stringfellow, he designed and patented (in 1842) a steam-driven airplane they called an " aerial steam carriage ." Patent figures of Henson's hoe guard razor. The patent was applied for in 1847, published in 1857. Above: Razor and guard marked Poynton. Below: Circa 1800 “friedlische Rasiermesser” (from Die Klinge, 1936). Courtesy of Renzo Jardella Patent figures of Henson's folding guard razor. Courtesy of In 1851 Charles Stewart & Company, Charing Cross, London, exhibited a folding straight razor, which they manufactured. B ased on Henson's 1847 patent , it had a detachable, non-reversible toothed guard secured by a single screw within a slot in the top of the guard . They called it the Plantagenet razor and marked it Royal Letters Patent with the V-Crown-R indicating it was made during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) .

In 1887 Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote “The idea of a guarded edge is an old one; I remember the 'Plantagenet' razor, so called, with the comb-like row of blunt teeth, leaving just enough of the edge free to do its work.” Holmes' memory wasn't entirely accurate, the guard extended slightly beyond the cutting edge . Royal Letters Patent PLANTAGENET RAZOR C Stewart & Co . 1864 – Kinloch's Guard Razor In March of 1864 John Kinloch of Philadelphia received a patent for a toothed guard nearly identical to Henson's design. At the time Kinloch was in Regiment 71, Company K of the Pennsylvania Infantry. As part of the Union Army of the Potomac the 71st took part in some of the largest battles of the Civil War including Antietam (1862) and Gettysburg (1863). According to military pension records Kinloch survived the war and died in 1896.

His patent states the goal of his invention: With the guard in place , “… the razor may be used without danger of cutting the face by those who are maimed or wounded, and by those who have to shave themselves in situations and under circumstances which render the operation by an ordinary naked razor both tedious and dangerous.” In Kinloch's design the guard teeth project a short distance beyond the cutting-edge of the blade. Kinloch's guard had the advantage of being symmetrical and reversible, that is, it could be used on either side of the blade (which Henson's guard could not). The guard is attached with a screw into a tapped hole in the blade exactly as in the Henson's design. Kinloch's patent drawing. 1877 – Michael Price Guard Razor An 1877 guard razor (unfortunately less the guard) is shown in Bernard Levine's Knife Makers of Old San Francisco . The razor was made by Michael Price, a well-known San Francisco cutler and importer. The razor has a cut-out shoulder to accommodate the guard and probably differed from the Henson or Kinloch attachment method . In 1878 Price advertised himself as "Maker of ...

the World-renowned GUARD RAZORS." Michael Price guard razor (missing the guard) marked 1877. Inset: 1878 San Francisco Directory ad. Courtesy of Bernard Levine 1879 – The French A. K This heavy-duty guard razor – it weighs in at about 2-1/2 ounces – was patented in France, December 1879. by François Durand, Eugene Louis Bossin and Jean Jules Brard, all of Paris. The example below is marked A.K / Paris. The razor has a fixed single-edge wedge blade and a roller guard. Both the handle and blade pivot at the ends of the guard, which is adjustable with two screws. The cutting edge of the A.K blade is 2-1/16 inch long and the depth is 7/8 inch edge. The 1881 U.S. Patent also shows the design adapted to a conventional folding guard razor . Dave Grant collection Figures from the Durand, Bossin, and Brard U.S. Patent. 1881– Allin's Razor Guard A razor guard very similar to Perret's was patented in 1881 by Lucius G.

Allin of Springfield, Massachusetts. But instead of wood, it was made of “thin elastic metal … hard rubber or other suitable material.” As Allin explained, the metal or other material should be 'springy' enough to clamp itself to the blade. Allin patent drawings An L-shaped guard razor using a short single-edge forged blade was described in 1874 and 1875 British patents awarded to John Monks of Gloucester, England. A U.S. patent was issued in 1878. A simple design, it could be made from a single piece of sheet metal. It was “intended for shaving the beard, but may be employed for trimming the hair, or removing the same from the skin of any animal.” Perhaps this wording from the patent suggested the somewhat disrespectful term 'pig-scraper' (the French prefer rasoir rabot). Figures from the 1881 Fontaine U.S. patent . An improved version of this razor designed to “facilitate the adjustment of the blade in the holder” was patented in France in 1879 by Pierre Lucien Fontaine of Chartres, France. The U.S.

patent (above) was issued in January 1881. Razors based on the Monks and Fontaine patents were made or sold by the American Safety Razor Co., (at right), John Watts (England), and Auguste Bain (France). Other similar razors bore names such the Pogonotome (below) and MODELE L.N. (France), Astor, Elephant, Perfection, Protector, Uwanta and Victor. They differed in the design of the flat handle and the means of securing the blade in place . Figures from the 1878 Monks U.S. patent. Figure 5 shows a variation usinga clip to secure a thin rigid 'frame-blade' – a forerunner of today's single-edge rib-backed blade . These American Safety Razor Co. razors appear to be based on the Monks patent. Both are marked PAT. APL'D FOR / A / S [maltese cross] R / Co. 1880 – The Star Safety Razor The Kampfe brothers, Frederick (c.1851-1915), Richard (1853-1906), and Otto F.

(1855-1932) were born in Saxony in eastern Germany. The two youngest brothers, Richard and Otto, immigrated to the United States in 1872, soon after the end of the Franco-Prussian wars. At the time they were 19 and 17 years old, and most likely had served several years as apprentice cutlers in Germany. It is probable that their older brother, Frederick, had already come to the U.S. In any event, they settled in New York City and started a cutlery business. Considering their business success and place in safety razor history, I have unearthed very little about the Kampfes and their enterprise, other than patents and a few census records . Perhaps more information will eventually surface on the internet. In May 1880 Frederick and Otto applied for a patent on “new and useful Improvements in Safety-Razors.” This is the first use of the term “safety razor” that I have discovered. Trademarks filed in 1903 claimed use of the Star name and symbol since 1 June 1880. Histories written by the American Safety Razor Co.

(which acquired the Kampfe business c.1919) have said the Kampfe Brothers began manufacturing the Star safety razor in 1875 ”in a one-room shop in New York City.” By 1899 they occupied space at 8-10-12 Reade St. A 1911 Kampfe advertisement stated: “The Star … has been made and used for thirty-six years. We were expert cutlery manufacturers before we invented the safety razor.” This also implies the razor was first made in 1875 . (Some collectors have noted that the early Kampfe safety razors had an 1875 date near or on the top portion of the handle.) The Star used Henson's idea of a hoe-type razor with a wedge-shaped blade, basically a short segment (4 cm long by 2 cm wide) of a straight razor blade. The blade was held in place by metal clips and did not require a tapped screw hole. A distinguishing feature was the shape of the razor frame or casing, which functioned as a “lather-catcher.” The razor was less expensive to make than some of complex hoe designs subsequently patented by competitors .

Many cutlers produced blades for the Kampfe and similar razors. A Kampfe blade is top center. e Bay The 1880 utility patent expired in 1897. In order to extend patent coverage, Frederick, Richard, and Otto Kampfe received a 7-year design patent for the tubular handle with a star pattern (1894) and a 14-year design patent for the lather catcher razor casing (1897). First Kampfe safety razor patent. 15 June 1880, Frederick and Otto F. Kampfe. Circa 1884 Kampfe razor. Circa 1887 Kampfe razor, blade, and tin . Early Kampfe razors were packaged in round and rectangular lithographed tins in a variety of label designs. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894). From a memorial postcard 1899 Kampfe advertisement. . The Star razor was very successful. In March 1887 Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

described a very useful bon voyage gift in an article in Atlantic magazine (later republished as a book “ Our One Hundred Days in Europe ”): “This little affair had a blade only an inch and a half long by three quarters of an inch wide. It had a long slender handle, which took apart for packing, and was put together with the greatest ease. It was, in short, a lawn-mower for the masculine growth of which the proprietor wishes to rid his countenance. The mowing operation required no glass, could be performed with almost reckless boldness, as one cannot cut himself, and in fact had become a pleasant amusement instead of an irksome task. I have never used any other means of shaving from that day to this. I was so pleased with it that I exhibited it to the distinguished tonsors of Burlington Arcade, half afraid that they would assassinate me for bringing in an innovation which bid fair to destroy their business. ... I determined to let other persons know what a convenience I had found the "Star Razor" of Messrs. Kampf [sic], of Brooklyn, New York, without fear of reproach for so doing. ...

It is pure good-will to my race which leads me to commend the Star Razor to all who travel by land or by sea, as well as to all who stay at home.” Holmes' namesake son became famous as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and for years after O. W. Holmes Sr. had died, Kampfe ads proclaimed “Recommended by Oliver Wendell Holmes.” Even before the first Kampfe patent expired in 1897 the Star razor was widely copied and sold in the U.S. and abroad – often labeled American Model. At that point Kampfe Brothers began to advertise more frequently, often including the statement "All Others are Spurious." They broadened their product line to include a variety of cased sets containing up to seven blades, razors with fancy handles such as rosewood or ivory, stropping devices, and shaving accessories. The Star blade still required stropping prior to each use and occasional skillful honing. This spawned many patents on stropping and honing devices. The Kampfe brothers ultimately acquired over 50 patents on razors and stropping devices and "automatic" stroppers were included in their high-end razor sets.

Over the years the Kampfe Brothers produced over 25 design variations of the Star wedge-blade safety razor. Competitors were encouraged by the success of the Star. Between 1880 and 1901, over 80 safety razor patents were issued in the U.S. alone. Gillette's 1904 patent inspired an even greater explosion of safety razor creativity, but that is another, and much longer, story. From 1895 Montgomery Ward & Co. catalog. Copyright © 2007, Robert K. Waits email: bladeguard[at]gmail.com For more patent information see the safety razor and stropper patent databases at ShaveWorld.org This web page has been expanded into a book: " Before Gillette " (2009).

Question: Who invented the first safety razor in 1895?
Answer: King Camp Gillette