The Segal was possible the first ever one piece razor, where the shaver twisted the handle to open the top cap. It worked very differently than the silo doors we’re used to today, and required a speciality blade.
Recently I found a video on YouTube that gives a very good impression of how it works:
As for the internals; here is the drawing from the patent:
Thanks to Glenn’s website covering the history of Gillette’s adjustable razors, I found a very important number… the number is one million, five hundred and ninety nine thousand, seven hundred and ninety three. As in US patent number 1 599 793, that is.
To quote from the patent description, it
…relates particularly to an index’adjusting device for use in connection with safety razors of the Gillette type wherein a flexible and elastic blade is provided with cutting edges that are adjustable toward and from the guard member of the razor
In short, it’s about how to make an adjustable razor adjustable.
As can be seen from the image, everything interesting is happening in the head or right below it. Adjusting the dial 16 makes the top cap move up and down in relation to the base plate, while the base plate stays fixed in relationship to the handle. In order to remove or insert a blade, the shaver would turn the dial around and around to unscrew the cap. In other words, this very early version of the Gillette Adjustable works much the same way a Merkur Progress does – although without the central bar the Progress have.
I don’t think Gillette ever manufactured – apart from prototypes – this razor, although it must be pointed out that the method of adjusting this razor bears a lot of resemblance to how Gillette suggested one could “adjust” an Old type razor back when it was first offered:
If a close shave is desired, turn the end of the handle back a little and the edges of the blade will lift slightly from the guard thus permitting closer contact with the face. A moments practice will show the proper adjustment.
The patent is expired, and thus anyone can make a razor like this today; however bear in mind that other aspects of a good adjustable may still be covered by patents. It would still be interesting if a machinist decided to have a go though, so we could compare how far this version is from the other adjustable safety razors.
/Update: I originally believed this was an early Gillette patent, but discussion and research by the members of the Shave Nook showed that this patent was never assigned to Gillette.
One of the reasons why the classic safety razor have seen a resurgence the later years is that you can get great blades for a fraction of the cost of a cart… but that was not always the case. As I’ve shown in previous posts*, when adjusted for inflation the blades used to be as costly as cartridges are today. With that in mind, the popularity of razor blade sharpeners** made a lot more sense… but it still required you to take the blade out of the razor. Wouldn’t it be easier if the blade could stay in the razor?
While not a new idea^, William R Ewing and Benton M Ewing filed a couple of interesting patents in 1948 and 1950 for a self-sharpening razor and improvements for it.
The two Ewings certainly aimed high with their invention, wanting to
…eliminate the need for constant replacement of blades in a device of the safety razor type by providing means whereby opposite faces of the blade edge may be sharpened at will…
The patent drawings shows a permanently attached single edge blade, and a sharpening element in the form of a roller.
Two interesting things that stands out on the sharpening roller is that the actual grinder is a arranged in a spiral shape around most of the circumference, and that the roller is shaped to act as the safety bar when in the neutral position. A lot of effort went into making sure that the blade was pushed evenly against the grinder, as evidenced by the flat spring pressing on the swingable blade holder. And it seems like it was that spring that was the major improvement in their second patent.
The vaguely kidney shaped cavity in the roller allowed the blade to swing enough to allow the roller to sharpen the upper side of the blade as well as the underside… how this works is best seen with the small illustration in the bottom left corner of the last drawing in conjunction with the illustration in the same location on the first drawing.
So after loosing the roller the shaver would push it along a flat surface, first one way and then the other, until the blade was sharp. Simple, easy, and fast… in one handy, complicated package.
Overall, the two patents shows a lot of ingenuity and effort going into perfecting a solution to a problem the shaver today simply don’t have… blades are so cheap these days we can change them daily if we want to.
*) See, for example, this post
**) Some of which is discussed in this post
^) The Shake Sharp dates from ’43
…and again, and again.
Heated razors is an age old quest. Gillette just dropped one, which seems to have impressed Mark over on the Sharpologist, and in their typical over the top marketing Gillette seems to be pushing this since the best shave ever… A hint for P&G: if you need to advertise the fact that your razor is waterproof, you’ve likely made an overly complicated razor.
Electrically heated razors isn’t a new idea by far, even if the latest itteration seems both more complicated* and far safer to use than some of the older ideas**.
While I can’t be completly sure, I’m reasonable satisfied that the current offering is based on a patent I found that was filed in in 2008 and assigned to the Gillette company – the patents describe a great many of the same features as the ads do.
…safety razor comprises a handle 14, a cartridge 15 with a safety device 18, a plate 24 and blades 30 between them. Inside the cartridge there is a heat-dispersive strip 40 and a heating element 45 with a resistive element 46 and an insulating element 50. The safety device comprises an electrical circuit providing power supply to the resistive element that provides heat to the heat-dispersive strip so that it imposes warmth to skin of the user during shaving.
The patent also lists twenty seven (27!) citations that predates it… and I found quite a few patents for heated razors that isn’t listed in the application.
Barra Charles filed a version all the way back in 1923. If you think the plug looks kind of odd it’s because you’re meant to screw it into a light bulb socket… so no chance of grounding it.
…electrically heat safety razors in such a manner that they may be conveniently used while being heated and that the heat may be maintained during the shaving operation at any desired temperature, whereby I am enabled to obtain the advantageous results of smoothness and comfort during shaving and to avoid infections of the skin which frequently occur from the use of unsterilised razors.
Charles Barra also filed a heated straight razor in 1923, or rather an attachment that turned your straight into a heated razor:
A razor blade heated to such a temperature will make shaving of a persons face more comfortable and the resulting shave will be more satisfactory than where the face is shaved with a cold razor.
…using an electric heater disposed at a suitable distance from the cutting edge of the blade, and in thermal relation thereto, which heater may be supplied with current from an ordinary electric service outlet, whereby the blade may be heated to and maintained at a sterilisation temperature both while not in use and while in the act of shaving.
(As a side note, sterilisation temperature is about 80°C (175°F) for almost all bacteria, yeast, and fungi… 80°C is enough to cause second and third degree burns in less than one second.)
In 1933 Pirwitz Emil filed for a safer variation, which required plugging and unplugging the razor:
…the invention employs a heating bolt disposed in the handle of the razor and made of material that is a good heat conductor, such as metal, the bolt iilling the entire handle from one end to the other and being adapted after one heating to keep the razor heated during an entire shaving operation without a new supply of heat.
…a bolt of this type permits the use of the razor without the dangers resulting from keeping the razor under current during the shaving operation.
Mr Pirwitz also showed an interesting variation in the same patent:
Look at figures 3 and 4; it’s a regular safety razor inserted into the heating device… which I presume you could either use while inserted in the bulky heater or take out and burn your fingers badly while shaving.
Thomas J Henderson and Leon Henderson aimed for cool hands in their 1935 patent:
The primary object of our invention is to provide in a safety razor a handle thereof which in use will apply heat only to the desired portion of the razor, that is, the head and blade, but will maintain a cool handle or grip.
A further object of our invention is to provide an electrically heated safety razor handle which is readily adapted for use on any suitable razor head.
Or how about this one from 1942, patented by Moses M Gravin?
…a safety razor with an electrically heated heating element therein which transmits an even heat to the razor blade and keeps it warm or hot during the shaving operation.
One of the objects of my invention is to heat the razor blade by conduction through a metallic element. I Another object of my invention is to provide ventilation between the heating element and the handle so that the handle will be cooled by the circulation of air.
In 1948 James Russel Hunt filed for a heated razor that allowed the shaver to adjust the current going into the razor by means of a rheostat:
..an electro-thermic shaver of the safety razor type which is adapted to directly heat the razor blade by heat conduction through a metallic element having a high coefficient of thermal conductivity such as copper.
…a heat control unit to permit the heat to be regulated by the user to produce various heat temperatures.
So as can be seen, the desire to make a heated razor is almost as old as Gillettes original safety razor… there is nothing new under the sun, nor in the shave den – except this time the offering isn’t that much bulkier than a regular razor, nor does it offer the exciting chance of electrocuting yourself while shaving.
*) It has overheat protection, two levels of heating, onboard battery with wireless charging, microcontroller, wobbly blades… I suspect the lats bit is unintentional
**) Hook your ungrounded razor up to the light fixture in your bathroom.. what can go wrong?
Brushless creams saves time… or so I’m told. If you could do away with the whole ‘putting lather on before shaving’, it stands to reason that you should save even more time… or at least cut down on the clutter in the bathroom. So that might bave been on Kai Warming’s mind when he patented his “Shaving apparatus with supply of shaving liquid to the cutting edge” back in 1924.
Mr Warming – a Dane living in Copenhagen – stated in his patent that:
It is well known that shaving is rendered difficult if the lather or the shaving-liquid used is dried up or quite absorbed by the skin or the hair of the beard.
Hmm. Get a better shaving soap, or design an overly complex razor to supply the skin with a small quantity of suds or water? I think Kai had a little too much spare time…
So what he designed was a fairly normal DE, but with a hollow handle and small channels running from the hollow handle and into the base plate. As an added complexity – and possible to avoid spraying the bathroom with suds and water – he included a small rotating disk (S) in the channels, that let the shaver select which half of the razor water was spraying from as well as turning the spray on and off… at least until corrosion made the disk stick.
Just how the shaving liquid – be it “water, suds, glycerine, eau de cologne or olive oil” – was to be encouraged to move from the handle to the base plate is a little unclear to me; the patent mentions that the handle would be “displaceable as a unit by exertion of an axial pressure by hand, thereby supplying liquid from the said bore to the said cavity”… I can only read that as saying you would pump the handle to get liquid out.
The patent is long expired if a machinist out there feels adventurous… just don’t expect to sell much more than Kai did, even if you use olive oil as your shave liquid.
Remember Joseph J. Schermack, Jr. and the ladies underarm razor he filed a patent for in 1931? That razor might never have made it to production, but the Shermac did… basically the razor he patented but without the “upstanding diametrically opposed segmental portions overlapping the cutting edge of the blade” that turned the round razor into a double edged design. The Shermac was, in effect, a single edge razor… one where the edge wrapped all around the blade.
I can find no patent covering the Shermac; it could simply be that Joseph J didn’t consider it to be different enough from his patented razor to file a new one, or it could be that the US patent office didn’t consider it patentable. The Shermac certainly looks easier to both manufacture and use than the razor described in the patent.
Allegedly the Shermac is pretty heavy for the size; to me this implies a cast baseplate and cap, which would be both cheaper and easier than machining them.
Even with the improvements from the patent, the Shermac seems to have been little more than a passing novelty fad in the market – the kind of thing you would buy as a gift for someone you couldn’t think of a better present for… and making the blades would still be more difficult and expensive than a regular straight blade.
A couple of photos I found online:
Ever watched someone shave under their arms, or shaved your own armpits? Did it ever strike you that using a straight blade isn’t the best suited for shaving a concave surface? You’re not the first… back in 1931 Joseph J Schermack filed a patent where he pointed out that an
…ordinary safety razor has a straight cutting edge and therefore is not adapted for shaving a concave contour, as it would be apt to cut or scratch the flesh.
The guy had a point, even if his invention seems to have failed in the marketplace – although it failed, I believe, due to other reasons than being misconceived.
Judging by the drawing in the patent, the underarm razor is a fairly straightforward three piece razor but with a circular head. Mr Schermack seems to have been stuck to the idea of making his razor a double edged razor, despite suggesting a circular blade that was edged all around. Or in his own words:
Figure 2 is a plan view of the circular crenellated guard, with upstanding diametrically opposed segmental portions overlapping the cutting edge of the blade on opposite sides of the latter.
To me this would be wasting part of the cutting edge, as well as meaning the shaver would have to pay close attention to how the razor twisted while shaving. Compare Mr Schermack’s invention to the Curvefit or the Shermac razors( both of which was manufactured and sold), and you’ll see two ways to avoid that problem.
I suspect that the main reason Mr Schermack’s invention seems to have failed is the cost of manufacturing the blades (inherently more costly than straight edged blades).
A lot of inventions aim at improving something that is already simple and functional, often to solve imaginary or minor problems. The improved shaving mug that David Heston patented in early 1875 do have some potential though… more about that later.
Having observed that the common shaving mug of the day was made for having a soap in the bottom, and therefore was fairly large and made it awkward for travel and storage, Mr Heston invented and patented one that was modular… in his own words:
…a shaving cup of detachable sections. It also consists in a soap-receptacle made detachable from the body of the cup, and constituting an integral portion thereof.
Mr Heston was limited by the technology of his time, so the drawing shows a bayonet joint between the soap cup and the shaving mug proper – today we would likely use threads instead, and indeed Mr Heston points that out as an alternative.
It will be seen that the cup may be easily produced, and for transportation packed in small compass. Provision is also made for filling the lower receptacle U with soap or shaving compound without. introduction through, or independent of, the top portion B, and the entire inner face of the cup is most readily accessible for purposes of cleansing.
Or in short: Simple to make, simple to transport, easy to put the soap in the bottom part, easy to clean the top part.
Looking at this patent, it suddenly occurred to me that artisan and small scale manufacturers of shaving soap today often use plastic containers for their soaps of a standardised size… either standardised across their own range, or even across several makers (I assume this is due to sourcing their containers from the same place). This means that they could design a screw on shaving mug to fit their hard soaps… allowing modern shavers to enjoy the traditional way of using a shaving mug without taking up too much space in their den. Another option would be to sell a version of this with multiple bottom parts, so the enterprising shaver could fill the soap cups with the soap of his choice. I’m just tossing the idea out there the patent is long expired, so it’s a free for all.
Dull blades? Or just finds blades too expensive to throw away, and need to expend the useful life of that sliver of steel? Fret not, because if it’s one thing people patented back in the day it is razor blade sharpeners…
One of the simpler ones was patented by Eric Muelberger Jr in 1937, and in the application he claimed that the existing sharpeners were both expensive and subject to mechanical wear and malfunctions… something he avoided by having no moving parts at all.
It is therefore my principle object to provide a non-mechanical safety razor blade sharpener which will not only resharpen the actual cutting edges of a blade but will simultaneously effect a hollow grinding of that portion of the blade immediately adjacent the cutting edges, the abrasive of the sharpener elements being arranged in permanent alignment.
No moving parts? Check.
Non-mechnical? Check.
Risk of slicing fingertips if you’re not careful? Check…
The upper and inner quarter of each abrasive element is formed with a curved convex surface and for the full length of the element, as at 3, for the purpose hereinafter described. The elements are spaced apart transversely such a distance that when a safety razor blade 4 is disposed lengthwise on said elements in the manner shown, the edges of the blade will rest upon such curved convex portion of the elements. In other words, the distance from center to center of the curved surfaces is the same as the width of the blades.
An important part of the idea was that blades shaved better if they were hollow-ground, something which Eric Jr achieved by careful shaping of the abrasive surface. It’s a very simple invention, at least by the standards of some of the other sharpeners I’ve seen – and I would be surprised if it didn’t see at least some production and sale during World War Two… after all, blades got harder to get hold of for the duration, and a simple, inexpensive means to keep them sharp would be welcome both at home and abroad.
The idea of a self feeding shaving brush – in other words a shave brush that contains the shave cream in the handle – is old… older than I though. In my wanderings online I found this gem from 1849!
Be it known that I, WILLIAM S. Jewett, of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Shaving-Brush; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same…
The idea is simple enough in hindsight, consisting of a hollow handle with a twisty bottom, a plate to push the shaving cream towards the knot, a short tube and that is about it. The patent have a single, simple drawing as well as a simple and straightforward explanation.
…a sectional or profile View of the brush, with the different parts, in which- A is the handle of the brush and also the box containing the soap which should be what is commonly called shaving cream. B, is the head of the left handed screw by turning which to the right the nut or button O, forces down the soap through the small metal tube E, into the brush. The tube E is :fixed on a thin plate D completely covering and protecting this end of the brush. The nut C should be covered with leather so that while .it fits closely the sides of the box the soap may be prevented from passing upward.
Simple, elegant, and – as history have shown us – doomed to failure and to be reinvented over and over again.