Category Archives: Patents

Improvement in shaving-mugs

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Shaving mugs comes in all shapes and sizes, from a re-purposed plastic cup to intricate scuttles… but in this day and age you don’t often see something as complicated as the useful improvement in shaving cups that was patented by Andrew J. Fuer and Walter C. Knaus in late 1873.
It has to be remembered that this was well before hot water taps were a common fixture… I mean, as far as I know even having running water inside would be on the bleeding edge of technology, and keeping your lather warm must been a lot harder back then.
A scuttle that was simple in construction and convenient to use must have been seen as a gift from the heavens for the serious shaver, and looking through the patent shows a design that at the very least fulfils the first of those two things;

A is a cylinder made of sheet metal, and provided at its lower end with a base, B. In the lower end of the cylinder A is fitted a small lamp, C, in which may be burned kerosene, alcohol, or other burning-liquid. To the opposite sides of the lamp C are attached pins, which enter bayonet-slots in the lower end of the cylinder A, so that the lamp can be conveniently attached and detached when desired. In the lower part of the cylinder A is formed a row of holes a little below the burner of the lamp C to allow the air to pass in freely to support combustion. In the upper part of the cylinder A is formed a cup or receptacle, D, to contain water. In the side of the cylinder A, a little above the bottom of the cup D, is formed  a hole leading into a small chamber, E, attached to the, side of the upper part of the cylinder A, and which should be of` sufficient size to allow the shaving-brush to be inserted. In the other side of the upper part of the cylinder A, just below the bottom of the cup D, is formed a` hole leading into the pipe F, attached to the side of the cylinder A, to serve as a chimney or line to carry off the heated air and the gaseous products of combustion, and to form a draft to promote combustion. In the upper end of the cylinder A is fitted a small cup, G, in which the soap is placed, and in which the lather is made. The cup G has a flange formed around its upper edge to rest upon the upper edge of the cylinder A, and `the said cup G should be such a depth as to extend down into the water in the cup D, so that the lather .may be kept warm.

A fairly straight forward and easy to understand description, especially for a patent. And if that was hard to follow, the drawing is also a model of clarity compared to some other patents I’ve had a look at lately.

There are a couple features of this patent that shows me that Mr Fuer and Mr Knaus at the very least had thought thigns through before applying for the patent: The bayonet-lock that makes sure the heat source stays in place, and the wide base that prevents the improved shaving mug from falling over spilling hot water and possible being a fire risk.
The only downside I see with this patent in light of when it was applied for and granted is the fact that the burner will heat up your bathroom, summer and winter – a small price to pay for hot lather.
I have no idea if this improved shaving mug ever went into production… it would be a shame if it wasn’t put on the market.

Bifurcated yoke razor

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From time to time I spot an old patent where I can see what they tried to achieve, yet have to wonder about details in how they tried to achieve it.

One of those is Roger C Edson’s patent from 1968 for a razor with a pivoting head. Today a pivoting head is de rigueur when it comes to cartridge razors, but fifty years ago in the last days of the era of widespread use of DE razors it was significantly less common.

Mr Edson was obviously inspired by the double edge razor, in that his invention featured a razor head that had a cutting edge on both sides. He did however elect NOT to use DE blades, for reasons unknown. As for how he made the razor head pivot, well, lets turn to the description in the patent:

…a razor having a bifurcated yoke at one end of a handle and on which a blade carrier is pivotally mounted to rock.

Okay.. so a Y-shaped handle with the head mounted between the two arms. Of the top of my head I can think of two or three ways to mount a head that uses a DE-blade in that configuration; either using a thumbscrew underneath the head or the two arms of the handle to lock the base plate and cap securely together. Mr Edson on the other hand… well, lets read on in the patent:

The blade carrier has surfaces for replaceably mounting a pair of blades in an opposed inclined relationship with a space between adjacent cutting edges. Each of the blades then acts as a guide for the opposite blade as they are moved in opposite directions and the carrier pivots to follow the contour of the surface being shaved.

Ooookay. Two blades, not one. And it gets even stranger when you actually look at the drawings that shows the invention.

Have a closer look at figures 1, 2 and 3. Notice anything out of the ordinary? Yes, Mr Eson did opt to use machine screws and nuts to attach the blades to the razor head, would wouldn’t glide too smoothly over the skin. Yes, it does look like the blades have a certain amount of sideways play. But what I noticed first is that the cutting edges of the blades both point to the middle of the razor head!
This little detail is mentioned towards the very end of the patent, in the summary:

A safety razor comprising a handle, a blade carrier mounted to be freely rockable on the handle, means on said carrier to support and position a plurality of replaceable blades, said blade carrier constructed to mount said blades such that the shaving edges of a pair of said blades face one another and are spaced apart sufficiently for a ridge of skin to be pressed between the edges and further to mount said blades at an angle relative to each other such that when one blade is drawn flatly across the skin acting as a guard and guide for the cutting edge of the other facing blade the latter is positioned so as to produce the proper shaving angle therefor.

Needless to say I can’t find any evidence that Mr Edison’s razor was ever manufactured and sold. If nothing else the use of machine screws and nuts makes changing blades much harder than it ought to be, and that alone would be enough to doom it in the marketplace.

Weird patents: “Toilet-brush”

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Sometimes a patent covers an invention which is so obviously an improvement on the state of the art that you wonder why no one have though about it before… and other times it covers an invention that history have passed by. George L Street Jr’s patent from August 1908 is one of the later.

The title of the patent is “toilet-brush”, but reading the patent makes it abundantly clear that what it means is a brushed used for a person performing one’s toilette and not for cleaning a potty. The meaning of words can drift over time…

Returning to the patent, it is claimed to be a “a certain new and useful Improvement” over previous brushes used for personal grooming, “especially applicable to shaving and tooth brushes”. As to why the brushes used for personal grooming needed to be improved, lets turn to the text of the patent:

One of the objects of the invention is to eliminate the use of a shaving cup, and cake or stick or of any detergent and holder therefor, such as is liable by repeated use to accumulate and harbor impurities and disease producing’ germs…

As to how this was to be achieved… for starters, the brushes were designed to allow easy cleaning of the base of the bristles (aka: the glue bump). This was supposedly achieved by making the brush capable of being opened up; the drawings that accompanies the text shows hinges along one side of the handle.

Freedom from the perceived bio-hazard on your shaving soap or in your shaving cup came from the ability to place soap directly inside the brush after opening it up. To quote from the patent text:

…an attenuated, pliant body of soap or detergent of proper size for a single use and which soap or detergent will lie .within or between the bristles and partake of their movement…

One version of the brush showed in the drawing includes a storage space in the handle for several of the soap wafers – useful, one would imagine, for a travel brush.

The patent also describe how the soap wafer would be made from a pliable material such as paraffined paper partially covered in soap, since soap by itself isn’t structurally sound and would disintegrate before a lather could be worked up.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to see why Mr George L Street Jr’s brush didn’t stick around… not only is the danger of germs on our soaps significantly less than the patentee seems to have believed, but a shaving brush with one or two small hinges is an invitation for a broken brush. You would also be locked in to a single source of shaving soap; however this was probably less of a worry in 1908 than most of traditional wetshavers would consider it in 2018.

Trav-a-long razor

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Time to head down the the rabbit hole of old razors again, this time looking at a travel razor that differs significantly from the more common types.

A while back I found this old advertisement on the ‘net, and decided to start digging a bit. After all, a razor that folds flat, fit in your pocket and carries a total of five blades sounds wonderful, right?

Covered by US patent 229844A, the Trav-a-long – or Travalong, as it’s described in Waits’ Compendium – folded into a neat rectangle measuring 1 by 2 by ¼ inces (2.5 by 5.0 by 0.6 cm).

The Travalong sold in a cardboard box or a leather pouch with a snap, and was available in either chrome satin, silver, or gold finishes – and to make things more complicated it was also sold under the name of Tru-Flex.

Based on how many pictures there is online of the Travalong, the razor must have sold reasonable well, but most probably didn’t see too much use. It is, after all, a travel razor and not a razor for every day use.

Speaking of pictures, here is a few I found online:

From a mechanical and technical point of view it is a very interesting and somewhat challenging design, relying on using the two arms that hold the razor head as flat springs to hold it securely – which means the tempering of the two arms are critical to get just right.
From a shaver’s point of view the handle shape will be a radical departure from the norm, but for the occasional use that shouldn’t be a major issue.
The patent have – obviously – lapsed, so if any aspiring machinist or CNC-operator out there want to have a go at this, it’s a free and already proven concept.

A trio of magnetic razors, revisited

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Remember these old patents? Now look at this image of a magnetic safety razor I found online:

Sadly the only thing I know about it is that the photo is labeled “u magnet safety razor”, but it sure looks like it’s straight out of Mr Ames’ patents.

Gillette Toggle – patent, parts and possible revival as the Janus Razor

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The Gillette Toggle is one of the more mechanically interesting razors out there… by moving a lever – the “toggle” that gives the razor it’s name – one way or the other the razor head will either open fully to let a user replace a blade, or just a smidgen to let a user rinse the blade.

The mechanism behind the Toggle was patented in 1957, and the patent itself makes for pretty interesting reading. Several springs have to be tuned to work in harmony, and making it adjustable increases the complexity further. I mean, just have a look:

Now compare that to a traditional three piece or even twist-to-open razor… and you understand why the Toggle wasn’t a cheap razor when it was introduced. Now, the Toggle as manufactured wasn’t identical to the patent – changes was likely made to improve ease of manufacture – but it was still a complicated razor as the following drawings show:

If the drawings are a little hard to read, well, I found an image of a disassembled Toggle:

A large spring that – I guess – controls the adjusting razor head, and a smaller one that seems to control the toggle. Or it might be the other way around – this is a razor that makes my head spin a bit. It’s also worth noting all the bushings and washers that allow bits to rotate and slide in relation to each other… this is a razor that will not take kindly to gunk in the mechanism.
As far as I know – or knew, rather – the complexity of the Toggle meant that no one tried to copy it or make a direct competitor. So imagine my surprise and mechanical interest when I stumbled over a thread on my favorite shave forum that pointed me towards Janus Razors; a small scale operation bent on recreating the Toggle.
As far as I can tell it’s not a straight copy, but rather a reimagining of the Toggle adapted for modern materials and manufacture technologies… I’m probably not far of the mark when I’m guessing CNC-machining and investment castings, both technologies that were close to science fiction when the original Toggle was designed.
I’ve found a few images of what I believe is prototypes or preproduction samples:

While I don’t think I’ll get a Janus Toggle myself – limited budget, already have a fairly nice collection of razors in my rotation, and so on – but I’m tickled by the fact that someone is diving into the deep end of mechanically complicated razors and are trying to recreate the Gillette Toggle.

Razor on a spring?

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For those who grew up with early eight bit micro computers* – such as myself – the Thing on a Spring was most assuredly a thing… but what has that Thing to do with razors?

Click for a trip down memory lane

Well… it was what I was reminded of when I stumbled upon Herr Felix Meyer’s patent for an “improved” safety razor. I imagine Herr Meyer was standing in his bathroom one morning in Germany and said to himself something along the lines of “Would this razor shave better is ze handle was not so stiff?”
And so he applied for, and got patented, an improvement that – in the words of his patents – was something like this:

In the preferred form of carrying out the invention the handle of the shaving device is made resilient, for instance, by being made or the like spring. Blade, guard and cap are either rigidly mounted together upon the resilient handle and have a common spring action, or the blade is stationary and-only guard and cap are resiliently mounted on the handle, or the cap and guard are stationary, whereas the blade is resilient.

The mechanics of having a moving blade – or moving base plate and top cap – while the rest of the razor is rigid is daunting… which may explain why the preferred form of the invention was a normal enough head mounted on a springy spring.
It is fairly clear from the description that the idea was for the razor to adjust to uneven pressure and sharpness by introducing an amount of ‘give’ to the razor, thus preventing cuts and nicks. Herr Meyer even came up with a way to adjust the stiffness of the handle:

Preferably the handle is so constructed that it does not consist of a single spring but of two coiled or other steel springs, which are inserted the one into the other, in such a manner that the handle can be made more or less rigid by adjusting the said coils, the one in the other. If instead of a coiled spring, a spiral (watch spring) is used for the handle, it is also preferable to make the handle in two parts, which can be taken apart and inserted into each other, so as to be able to again adjust the strength of the spring action at will. The object of the adjustability of the strength of the spring action is to be able to regulate the said spring action according to the growth of the beard or to the sharpness of the blade.

Reading the rather verbose text, it seem that Herr Meyer believed the flexible handle would give a shave closer to that of an experienced barber with a straight – or at least make it less likely for a new shaver to cut himself. Since we still uses razors with stiff, non-resilient handles, I’ll let you all work out how well Herr Meyer’s invention did in the marketplace…
… unlike the Thing on a Spring. That game have stuck with me and a generation of 8-bit gamers.

 *) At least those who had a C64 or C128, and I guess those with the Amstrad CPC as well. Not those sad people with a ZX81 or a Spectrum though.

An early multiblade razor

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Today we’re used to the big multinationals sticking yet another blade on their razor and hailing it as the greatest breakthrough in shaving since the blunt stick… but the idea of “one blade good, more blades better” came quite soon after the Gillette safety razor hit the market. One of the earliest I’ve found so far was patented by Mr Herbert G. Harrison in 1909.

What Mr Harrison claimed in his patent was eightfold, namely:

1. A razor provided with a plurality of superposed blades, and with means for rigidly securing the cutting edges of said blades in such a close relation to each other that said edges may be simultaneously used for shaving the same spot, substantially as described.
2. A razor provided with a plurality of overlying blades and with means for rigidly securing the cutting edges of said blades one slightly behind the other and in such a close relation to each other that said edges may be simultaneously used for shaving the same spot, substantially as described.
3. A razor provided with a plurality of superposed removable blades, means for spacing said blades, and means for rigidly securing the cutting edges of said blades in such a relation to each other that said edges may be simultaneously used for shaving, substantially as described.
4. A safety razor provided with a guard, a plurality of overlying blades, and with clamping means for rigidly securing the blades in such a relation to each other that their cutting edges may be simultaneously used for shaving, substantially as described:
5. In a safety razor the combination of a plurality of superposed removable blades with curved clamping means, comprising a distance piece, for rigidly securing the blades in such a relation to each other that their cutting edges may be simultaneously used for shaving, substantially as described:
6. In a safety razor the combination of a plurality of superposed blades, a distance piece having eccentric curved surfaces; and means for rigidly securing said piece and blades in such a relation that the cutting edges will be presented to the skin simultaneously in the act of shaving, substantially as described.
7. In a safety razor the combination or a plurality of superposed blades with clamping means for rigidly securing the blades with the cutting edge of the one slightly in advance of the cutting edge of the other and in such relation to each other that their cutting edges may be simultaneously used for shaving, substantially as described.
8. A safety razor provided with a guard, a plurality of overlapping blades, an with means for securing the cutting edges of said blades in such a relation to each other that said edges may be used simultaneously for shaving, substantially as described.

Sounds complicated. Luckily the drawings makes it all clearer…
So all those words just means two DE-blades stacked with a spacer in between. I seem to recall that a razor like that hit the market a couple of years back and pretty much flopped – much like Mr Harrioson’s razor seems to have done in 1909.

The patent for the Goodwill – or rather; the Probak

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Have a look a this Gillette Goodwill razor (picture found at Mr Razor’s site), paying special attention to the top cap:

Now; look at what Mr  Henry Jaques Gaisman patented and later transferred to Gillette Co LLC, covering both the shape of the blade and the manner in which it was secured in the razor:

Look at the top cap, with the square cut-outs and corner posts. Look at the Goodwill again. Looks remarkable similar, do they not?
I do believe this is the patent that gave rise to the Goodwill – well, technically to the Probak.
Probak, I hear you say?
Turns out that the DE blade we know and love today isn’t really a Gillette blade, but the result of an attempt to work around Gillette’s patent on the three hole blade.
Mr Gaisman designed a blade that would work in his proprietary Probak razors (with oddly shaped studs – there was at least eight different base plates and top caps with different shaped studs) as well as in Gillette’s razors; but none of his razors could not accept a Gillette three hole blade, thus neatly sidestepping the patent.
With Gillette working on a similar concept at the time – using a slotted blade – the resulting patent conflict ended when Gillette bought out Probak Corp (and their parent company, AutoStrop Co). The stock of Probak razors were given away or sold cheaply (sources differs) as the Gillette Goodwill, and that is the name they are known under today.
To wrap things up, lets look at a Probak advertisement and compare to today’s DE-blade:

Apart from the shape of the middle hole – the X-shaped hole creates a lot of corners that ‘trap’ stress in the metal – the blade design is unmistakably Mr Gaisman’s, and not Gillette’s. And I only learned the story behind that because I found an old patent online… funny how things work sometimes.

A trio of magnetic razors

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It’s been a while since I deep dived into the weird world of magnetic razor patents.. so here goes:

Butler Ames patented a razor in 1917 that he claimed was a “new and useful improvements in magnetic razors”.

His razor was – as far as the drawing goes – simply a razor head attached to a horse shoe magnet. Attached BY magnet, in as far as the description describes it:

While the shape of the magnet may be varied within the scope of the present invention, it only being essential that one or more poles be dispose in such manner as to attract the parts and hold them together, I prefer to employ a U-magnet inasmuch as it affords two spaced pole pieces and also affords a handle which is very convenient in shaving.

 At the same time Mr Ames also applied for and got a patent for another method of attaching the magnet to the razor head.

To quote Mr Ames from his patent description:

Another cardinal feature of the invention comprises means for rigidly mounting the guard member 6 upon the magnet 1 and at the same time permitting the ready withdrawal of the of the guard member and mounting means from the magnet. The preferred embodiment of the mounting means, according o the present invention, comprises pole pieces 7 adapted to fit over the ends of the as shown in steel or other magnetic material.

But Mr Ames ingenuity hadn’t run dry with two different ways of attaching the magnet to the razor – so he filed a third patent at the same time. This one was intended to make it more difficult for the razor head to tilt on the handle.

To describe this iteration in Mr Ames’ own words;

In the present embodiment of my invention the base or guard member is preferably formed of steel, and as this is a magnetic material I preferably provide means for preventing magnetic flux being shunted from the cap member through the base member, inasmuch as the attraction exerted upon the cap member by the magnet is decreased in proportion to the amount of flux shunted from the cap member. For this purpose I provide bushings of non-magnetic material between the poles of the’magnet and the of collars 16, these collars also serving an– other useful purpose, as will now be described.
In using the device there is a certain amount of pressure exerted on the edges of the guard member which tends to tip it about the central axis of the poles 11 and 12.,
By forming the collars 16 of considerable thickness, bearing surfaces 17 may be provided at their upper ends upon which the guard member may rest throughout a considerable area. Owing to this considerable area and owing to the fact that it extends well out toward the edges of the guard member, the guard member when positioned thereupon is rigidly held in position.

For being a trio of patents covering magnetic razors, the patents Mr Ames applied for and received are blissfully free of woo-woo. No mention of magically keeping the blade sharp, no claims to make better shaves, no rambling of magnetism making the hairs easier to cut or nothing like that… just using magnets to keep the razor together.
Mr Ames took a fourth patent in 1919, that built on his magnetic razor patents; a “new and useful improvements in packages of razor parts”.

Basically a way to pack one of his magnetic razors along with a stack of blades in a small, specially shaped tin. Or as the more verbose patent description states it:

It is the principal object of this invention to provide for the package of disassembled razor parts in small, light and very. compact compass, in such shape as to facilitate packing or carriage on the person under any and all conditions of service. It’is a further object of the invention to provide’ in the package as art thereof, a blade package adapted to facilitate the compact packing of a plurality of blades and to protect their cutting edge or edges until such time as they are successively removed for use.

It would have made a wonderful and compact travel razor kit to be sure – just one I would keep well away from anything that magnetism may affect.

Mr Ames patented a fair number of other things too; magnetic cores, lamps, distilling apparatuses, a reciprocating apparatus… but as far as I can tell he dabbled no further in razors.