I have written about quite a few self lubricating razors. More than a few, to be frank. But the idea seems to turn up like a bad penny over and over and over again. Although – if the patent drawing is anything to go by – the water dispensing razor invented by Ralph Galli Jr in 1978 makes for a happy shaver.

As I’ve said before, the majority of patents seeks to fix a problem. And Ralph’s patent sought to fix the “problem” of the skin not being moist and lubricated. In the words of the patent:

Description of the Prior Art
In order to obtain close, smooth shaves and to minimize cuts when using a safety razor, it is necessary to maintain the skin in a moist lubricated condition. Various devices have been proposed which have fluid dispensing containers and tubes attached to or within the handle of a razor. These devices have generally been quite complex, difficult to use and require entirely new razor configurations, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,683, issued July 7, 1964, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,336,806, issued Dec. 14, 1943.
Summary of the Invention
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a safety razor having a simplified water dispensing arrangement which does not require extensive modifications of standard razor types.

From US patent 4,177,556

A problem I fixes every time I shave by not using canned goo or, even worse, no lather at all. But that idea wasn’t good enough for Ralph. Instead he came up with a single edged razor that you could hook up to the bathroom faucet.

Yes, you did read that right.

Ralph invented and patented a razor that, in order to work as intended, needed to be connected to the water tap in your bathroom.

Yes, that is as crazy as it sounds. The only thing that would be more crazy if is the patent drawing contained a severely misshapen man using… the… razor… oh. Right. At least he is smiling. Moving on!

Odd looking drawing aside, the water dispensing razor is fairly straight forward. A okay looking single edge razor have a manifold in the head. The handle is hollow, and has a small pushbutton valve in the upper part. The handle is connected to the faucet with a flexible hose, which has an adjustable clamp bearing down on it.

In use, the shaver would first spend a few minutes untangling the hose before attaching it to the faucet. Then he would open the faucet, adjust the clamp, before pushing the pushbutton valve. And then water would come out of the razor head and flush any soap or lather away from the shavers face.

I mean, I do get it. Some people like shaving in the shower. This would be much the same, but without the shower. I don’t like shaving in the shower, in part because water, while wet, don’t give me any cushion nor glide. Water is lousy lather.

From a technical point of view, this invention will work as intended. The water dispensing razor will dispense water. I’m just forced to ask why… why go to all the trouble to create a moist lubricated condition, when the solution is called a brush and a puck of soap?

As usual, you can read the full patent on Google Patents.

Early in 1909 Mr O A Clark filed a patent for a razor that looks remarkable modern. A little too modern for the time perhaps… it used a slotted blade, something that didn’t catch on until the 30’s. But Mr Clark didn’t stop by patenting a razor. He also patented the blade by itself, which had some neat features. He patented a way to pack and dispense the blades neatly. And he patented the way to manufacture his special blades. In short, Osroe A Clark dreamt up and patented a whole shaving system. Which seems to have sunk without much of a trace… shame, really.

A razor blade is – to no one’s surprise – razor sharp. But in some causes, like when you shave someone else, you want a blade less likely to cut. Cut skin, that is. A safety blade, if you like. There have been many such blades patented over the years, like R E Thompson’s 1924 toothed blade and A W Ferrara’s 1966 safety blade. And this one, Donald S Daniel, Jr.’s 1978 patent for a surgical razor blade.

Like before, the idea was to make the blade less likely to cut skin by giving it an integral guard. Donald did it by wrapping a thin, flexible wire around a rectangular blade. Or in the words of the patent:

A surgical razor blade with an integral guard for its cutting edge in the form of a plurality of spiral windings of thread being of flexible material capable of being pressed against the blade cutting edge under pressure in shaving contact with the normally unshaven areas of the skin without severance of the thread…

From US patent 4,094,066

In short, a blade protected by a wire the blade can’t cut. The patent do go into a bit of details on the thickness of the wire (0.2mm to 1.0mm) and the distance between the windings (1.0mm to 4.0mm). This would, according to the patent, allow the shaver to select the best blade for the hair and area to be shaved.

For extra safety, the corners of the blade were rounded so you couldn’t nick the shavee with a sharp point.

The razor shown in the patent, aptly described in the patent as a “suitable holder” is fairly conventional. A handle, a bottom plate with a guard, and a top plate. It would differ form a regular three piece though, since the blade did not have a slot. Instead the blade would have to index of two notches cut at each end of the blade. How the top plate would connect to the bottom plate isn’t explained in the patent. However, judging by the drawing, there seem to have been a bayonet locked pin operated by a tiny lever on either side. A little fiddly, but probably okay for surgical use.

I see no reason why Donald’s surgical razor blade shouldn’t work as intended. At least one conceptually similar blade is for sale today, in the form of the Feather Artist Club ProBlade. The major hurdle I can see with the blade is that it won’t work in a regular razor – unlike Thompson’s and Ferrara’s blades.

You can read the full patent on Google patents. Is you like this sort of things, why not check out some of my other posts on the subject of old patents?

What is a razor safety rack, you may ask? Well.. a razor safety rack is basically a rack for your safety razors. Or as the patent abstract puts it:

A holder for a plurality of safety razors and other bathroom articles is detachably secured to a bathroom wall.

…

Catch mechanisms disposed in all of the recesses press against the heads of both double and single edge razors to hold same detachably in these recesses to prevent the razors from being accidentally dislodged therefrom.

From US patent 4,008,808

So a razor safety rack is a rack that safely holds your safety razors. It isn’t the first wall mounted razor kit or holder I’ve shown here. It is the first, as far as I recall, that has catch mechanisms though.

Sometimes I see a patent, and can’t help but to wonder why the idea didn’t take of. And a little while ago razors.page shared a patent which – if there had been any justice – ought to have been a run-away hit. Hubert Chauncy Hart’s razor with a slide-on handle was the best thing before¹ sliced bread. As it is, it ended up being one of the many razor patents that went no where. It is still worth a look though.

What was it with the late sixties and early seventies that made people want to fill up the landfills with plastic? Earlier this week we looked at a plastic razor, and here we got another disposable preassembled plastic razor. Or, to you and me who dabble in traditional wetshaving;¹ piece of plastic junk.

At a casual glance, the razor patented by Paul A Braginetz² looks remarkable similar to the semi-disposable double edge razor³ I got in my drawer. Major differences in in the arrangement of the blade aligning studs, and that it came with both an open comb and a safety bar.

One morning in late ’72, Ray L Stone woke up and realised what the world needed. Yet another disposable plastic razor. Which, honestly, is the last thing the world need – but the early seventies were a different time. So Ray went and patented his idea, so lets look at the result.

Most inventions have a purpose.