Clean Fighters

As we all know, Gillette got the opportunity to equip the US Armed Forces with razors as our American friends geared up to join the Great War – a few years after everyone else had gotten in on the action.

This not only gave Gillette a few million razors out there – and thus significantly increased the user base – but also gave Gillette a new thing to talk about in their advertisements.

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Shaving aid stored in the razor handle

Several of the patents we’ve looked at lately took the form of pen-shapedmore or lessshaving and hygiene kits, some with additional functions. Most of them stored some form of shaving aid in the handle – a tiny brush, soap powder or pellets. But what if I told you there was a patent for doing just that? One that covered just having a shaving aid stored in the razor handle?

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Great British Patent 1902-28763

1902-28763. Or, for those who can’t quite recall the patent numbers of the top of their heads, one of King Gillette’s earliest patents for the classic three piece Old Type Razor.

It wasn’t King Gillette’s earliest patent, nor his last. It is, as far as I am aware, the earliest of his patents showing the classic Old Style razor with the bottom knob. Both his early US patents – US 775,134 and US 775,135 – required the user to either unscrew the handle or use the whole handle as a knob.

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Letters to Gillette Blade from the Gillette Boys

Gillette used to – back in the olden days – to have an internal magazine called the Gillette Blade. As far as I can tell, the Gillette Blade was aimed at Gillette’s employees, sales people, and share holders. Today one would have a company website, but this was a wee bit before the modern internet came along.

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