A rather The Shave Nook themed shave to start the week. Soap from Phil, who ran TSN, in a machined aluminium soap dish he first talked about on the Nook. Brush is thd first LE brush done for the Nook (17/100). And the razor I bought as NOS ftom a fellow shaver there.
As we all know shaving brushes is a source of anthrax and other horrible germs. So how do you make sure your thrifty barber only uses his disposable shaving brush once? Apart from making it out of paper, that is? Fear not, Marguerite Faučon secured a an Imperial German Patent on a self destroying disposable shaving brush back in 1909.
The idea is sound enough, for certain values of sound. You wanted to make sure your barber used a clean, hygienic, and preferable antiseptic brush when he lathered you up. but how could you at a glance see that this was the case?
As I mentioned last week, the internet is a strange place. But also a fun place, if you like nerding out from time to time. The Indian Standard 7371, which I talked about last week, does of course have a companion standard. IS 7370 covers razors, safety – just as 7371 covers blades. And IS 7370 have some rather neat and potentially useful information as well.
Useful if you plan to design or manufacture your own safety razor, that is. Neat if you like this sort of things – which I do.
Another Monday, another shave. This one marks the start of the Single Edge portion of my rotation – three months of Schicks, GEMs, and a single EverReady.
The internet is… interesting. There is so much information out there that it is almost impossible to find it. But sometimes I find something which isn’t what I look for, but which nevertheless grabs my attention. Like IS 7371.
On the surface, just a dry government publication defining the acceptable standards for stainless steel safety razor blades. But once you start looking through it, you realize that it is a wealth of very specific information that can be interesting for anyone who are tying with the idea of making a safety razor. Or just happen to have a general thirst for esoteric knowledge.
The self-soaping shaving brush is not a new idea. We’ve looked at various ones from 1849and onward upuntil the 1980s. But what we have today is not not a self-soaping brush – it is a self-watering brush. Although you could likely use it as a self-soaping one too, with the right liquid soap.
Most – if not all – inventions try to solve some form of problem. Some are successful. Some solve problems we no longer have. And sometimes the problem is imaginary. As to which category James B Fischbach’s self-watering brush falls in… well, let’s look at his patent.
The object of my invention is to construct a brush used for shaving purposes, and to effect certain improvements of this character whereby simple and efficient means shall be provided for forcing water into the brush and for readily controlling the flow.
It is also constructed to fill itself when said brush is placed in water, and at the same time when the brush is being used it supplies the bristles or hair of said brush with said water.
From US patent 583,702
Patent drawing from US patent 583,702
The secret is on the inside of the otherwise normal looking brush. A rubber bulb with an elongated teat sat inside the hollow handle. The tip of the teat nestles between the hair of the knot. When a operator wants to shave, he places the brush in water as normal. And then he pushes on the bulb, expelling the air. This, in turn, makes the bulb suck water through the teat. Then, while he is lathering normally, the operator can push the bulb to squeeze some of the water into the knot to hydrate it.
Yes, I’m not sure either as to what benefit this would have. A easy way to add water to lather, but I can think of other and simpler ways to achieve it.
I think we can add the patent for the self-watering brush to the list of patents that solves imaginary problems.
