It’s all well and good to have a fun razor to shave with, an odd brush to make lather with, and an old soap to make lather from… but if you can’t see your own face, your shave probably won’t be great. And for those who shave in the shower, you’ll probably like a non-steaming mirror. Like the one Nicholas S Kladitis filed a patent for in 1980, for example.
Continue readingIf you ask the average person around where I live what Colgate makes, the answer will be toothpaste. A hundred and eleven years ago the answer might have been shaving cream. Or shaving powder. Or even shaving stick – Colgate did all three according to this 1912 advertisment.
Continue readingIn 1887, Mr Arthur Henry Wallace of Houghton, Michigan came up with what he described as a new and useful improvement in shaving apparatus. And by shaving apparatus, Wallace clearly meant a doodad to hold and heat a brush.
Wallace’s doohickey was compact enough to be carried in a pocket or stowed away in a satchel. It would, he claimed, fulfil all the requirements for which it is intended. As long as the requirements is limited to forming a water reservoir, having a lamp to heat it, and having a built in shaving brush that wouldn’t touch the table when you put it down…
Continue readingAt about the same time as the original Gillette safety razors were offered for sale, Henrie Clauss filed a patent for a spring loaded hoe razor. It was a reasonable straight forward razor, using a single edged Christy-style blade. So let us have a look at what made it stand out from the crowd.
Like so many razor patents, the patent text describes the invention as containing “new and useful improvements”. And while it might have been novel – or at least novel enough for a patent – I’m unsure of the usefulness.
Continue readingMemorial day is upon us, and while I’m not in the US I do realise that a lot of my readers are.. and Memorial day is both the start of summer and a log weekend. So to help y’all pass the time in the sun, I’m offering free copies of my second book.
From May 26th and until May 30th you can go to Amazon (US, UK, or wherever) and grab a free Kindle copy of
When the New improved Gillette was introduced, Gillette needed a new improved advertisement too. After all, the ads for the Old Type was, well, old.
Continue readingOld razor ads can be worth looking into. New ones can be… odd. And ones from back when I grew up can be pretty bland. Recently I found a Gillette Contour ad from when I was still in elementary school. Back then shaving was, for me at least, something grownups did before I even got out of bed.
Continue readingA few days ago we had a look at a 1917 Gillette advertisement, which referenced a patent filed in 1901. And today we look at that patent – and how it differs from Gillette’s better known and slightly newer patent for the Old Type safety razor.
But before we get into the differences, let’s see what King wanted to achieve with his invention:
Continue readingSo what makes a razor worth looking into? Well, this 1905 Gillette advertisement from the December issue of Scientific American don’t actually answer that question, but implies that the Gillette has those qualities that makes it worth looking into. It also makes some claims that are strangely familiar to what P&G says about their plastic cartridge monstrosities today…
Continue readingSo I was rummaging around the internet again, when I spotted a pair of interesting old photos.
