Just a reminder; if you enjoy reading my snarky commentary on old shaving related patents, old (and some newer) advertisements, shaving history and other shaving related oddities… I have collected the vast majority of links on a separate page here on my blog.
I also have a page that acts as a very basic introduction to the various styles of safety razors for those who are new to the hobby, and a page where I got almost all of the reviews I’ve done over the years collected.
And if you enjoyed my writing on patents, I have also committed a book you can read offline that is available both on Kindle and as a paperback.
Advertisement that ran in the United Farmers of Alberta, Vol. 9, no. 7 (Apr. 1, 1930)
In 1930 Gillette’s new blade – the one with the slot – went on sale, and looks almost like the one we use and love today. Almost, but not quite… since today’s blade is the descendant of the blade that originated with the Probak razor. There differences are slight, and the lawsuit, counter-lawsuit, and corporate takeovers were… complicated. In the end Gillette bought AutoStrop (who owned Probak), but the real story on who gained control of who is something I have not dug into too much.
No soap, water or brush required – sounds like the brushless creams of today, or possible the canned goo that the multinationals sells. It is, however, the tagline is taken from an advert in the British Navy and Army Illustrated magazine, from 1899… singing the praises of the Euxesis shaving cream.
The name Euxesis might come from the greek root “eu” – meaning good – and “xesis” meaning to scrape… so the name might mean “good shave”. The word was made up by Solomon Morgan Lloyd – the man whom allegedly invented the brushless cream – some time before 1850 if my light research is to be trusted. I have not uncovered any patents in his name covering shave creams, so he might have bought the idea of someone else.
There is also some speculations online that Euxesis also inspired the creation of the Burma-Shave shave cream, although I’ve not uncovered firm proof of that.
Taken from Navy and Army Illustrated 1899
Judging by the sources, Euxesis wasn’t a shaving soap, but was instead:
…an emulsion of some one of the expressed oils, together with an certain amount of perfumery; that it is not saponified, is not soluble in water, and does not possess any of the properties of a soap.
Treasury Decisions Under Customs and Other Laws, Volume 34
A lot of the early advertisements I can find online is aimed at British military personnel, which makes sense seeing as how a soldier of the Empire might find himself serving far away from the comforts of home, but a British gentleman wouldn’t dream of giving up the trappings of civilisation – so shaving was a necessity, even if you’re serving somewhere where heating up water for your morning toilet were a senseless waste…
How about a gold lined shave brush and mug in embossed silver plate? Yours for just 2.48$ – in 1897, that was… so according to inflation calculators it would be a mere 80$ or so today.
Too much? How about 2.25$ then, for one with somewhat less embossing? No? They are very fancy…
Both were listed in the Hugh O’Neill & Co. 1897-98 Fall and Winter Catalogue – Hugh O’Neill being – in effect – a multichannel merchant. The company had a huge department store in New York, as well as shipping out about a quarter million catalogues every year. In many ways a competitor to the more well known Sears Catalogue, it’s not surprising that they were showcasing shaving gear.
I’m not entirely convinced they were rugged enough to survive in any great number until today – the silver plating and gold lining were probably as thin as they could possible make it, to save on valuable resources. And when the fashion turned against the embossed designs, they likely got discarded or used for less glamorous needs.
Are you worried that the blade in your inexpensive safety razor cannot be stropped without having to take it out of the razor?
Me neither, but if this ever was a worry for you the British 7 o’clock razor was what you wanted. A simple touch of a finger let the razor spring open for stropping and cleaning, and the razor was so simple that nothing could go wrong.1
Robert K Waits mention in his compendium that it’s a different design than the American AutoStrop razors, pointing to a couple of patents.
The ones that are quickest to find online it the US patents 764,574 , 1,061,772, and 1,087,544. Common to all of them is a mechanism to swing the base plate with the open comb down as the blade is swung up for stropping.
(1) If experience is an indicator, there is no such thing as a foolproof device; nature just comes up with a better fool.
Need a new brush, but think a pure badger is a little expensive? What if we cut the price by twenty percent? Still too expensive? Okay… what about a free safety razor thrown in too, for free? Deal?
This epochal invention – the Warner Fountain Shaving Brush – carries it’s cream in the handle, as a a fountain pen holds ink. When you turn the control the cream is released in the bristles. Then dip the brush in water and it lathers copiously. To shave this way, a man doesn’t have to soap his brush or his face – or to whip up lather in a shaving mug. This new way appeals espesially to men who find a stick or tube bothersome – ofttimes the tiny tube cap gets lost on the floor. The Warner Fountain Shaving Brush ends all annoyance and tinkering. It’s the team-mate of any razor – and ranks with the safety razor in convenience.
Speaking of the cream; Warner apparently teamed up with the manufacturer of the far-famed Mennen’s Shaving Cream – fresh cartridges with enough cream for two to three months of shaving available at any dealer for a mere 35 cents.
According to the advertisements, the knot itself was a celebrated Rubberset brush – soft and thick bristles set in a bed of vulcanised rubber, guarantied by both the Rubberset makers and by Warner. The knot was detachable and easily sterilised (just “…drop in boiling water”), and the nozzle that delivered the cream into the knot was self sealing to prevent the cream from drying out.
Enough of Warner’s Fountain Brushes must have been sold for the brush to show up on online auctions sites from time to time… but given how pristine the boxes sometimes looks I’m not convinced they saw a lot of use – possible it was better as a Father Day gift when you were out of ideas than an actual daily driver in the bathroom?
The shaving ritual, then, is much more than a simple mechanical act involving the removal of facial hair. It is also, and perhaps more so, a ritualized performance by which a human male creates one specific modern masculine gender value — clean-shavenness — through the appropriation of other masculine values from the objects used, as a means of integrating his imaged self with the ideal self as expressed through advertising. And when enough men perform this act of appropriation or integration often enough and long enough, every element of the ritual becomes increasingly embedded as a cultural norm, and in turn becomes a signifier of the thing once signified.
Razors, Shaving and Gender Construction: An Inquiry into the Material Culture of Shaving, by G. Bruce Retallack from the University of Toronto
I was looking for a funny advertisement or something like that to snark on, as I often do. What I did find was an interesting paper exploring the processes and material components of the particular grooming practice we engage in that both reflects and reinforces traditional gender distinctions – namely shaving.
By extension, razors become themselves signifiers of gender, and can be used as such in other contexts. If a man finds a woman’s razor in his son’s dorm room, he will very likely assume that his progeny has had an overnight female guest. The same is true, although less so, if the genders are reversed
Razors, Shaving and Gender Construction: An Inquiry into the Material Culture of Shaving, by G. Bruce Retallack from the University of Toronto
It is fairly long, but also fairly easy to read. If you got half an hour or so, and have an interest in both the history and practice of shaving with a razor, you can spend it worse ways than getting yourself a drink and read it.
In July 1908 Mr Walter H Nicholls walked into the patent office and filed an application for a two piece razor that utilised the springiness of the razor blade to keep the top cap in place, even if he didn’t stress this point in the patent text.
This invention relates to razors of that type in which the blade is detachably secured to a blade-carrying head or holder, and while applicable to various kinds and styles of razors of this character my improvements are particularly adapted and intended to be embodied in safety razors, my object being to provide a simple, practical and inexpensive construction whereby the blade may be quickly and easily secured to and detached from the holder, and will be firmly held thereby when in use.
