Does rinsing your brush out take too long? Is is simply too difficult to get all the soap out? Then what you need is Mr Thomas W Boyle’s patented shaving brush from 1927!

It is an important object of this invention to provide an improved simplified type of shaving brush the handle of which is hollow and is adapted to have one end thereof removably engaged on the mouth of a faucet to admit water into the handle, while the other end of said handle is provided with a passaged brush head through which the water is adapted to be forced under pressure between the brush fibres to thoroughly wash and rinse the same after a shaving operation.

 It seems that Mr Boyle figured the hollow handle was important, and that it was also important to note that the brush engaged the mouth of a faucet… the claim is repeated three times over the space of three short paragraphs in the patent.

Had this been invented today it would probably been marketed via late night infomercials and be labelled “As seen on TV!”, it just gives of that vibe… in the mean time I’ll just have to rinse and shake my brushes.

Back in 1931 Mr Isaac S Mathieu  and Mr Frank B Springer patented a fountain shaving brush… an improved fountain shaving brush no less, meaning someone out there patented at least one earlier one. The idea is much like the shaving brushes for canned goo I blogged about last week, in that the shaving cream should be applied directly to the brush with little in the way of mess.

The principal object of our invention is to provide a shaving brush having a hollow handle with cream dispensing means therein so constructed to t directly inside a tube of shaving cream inserted in the handle, whereby to dispense the cream therefrom, or operate simply inside the handle when the same is filled with cream, as by emptying a tube therein. This makes the brush independent of use with any particular sized tube, and the user can employ his favorite cream without regard to the size of tube.

Judging by the drawing, it’s a shaving cream syringe attached to a brush…  would make for an awesome travel brush, if anyone feels like setting up a production line.

When the aerosol can with canned foam appeared on the marked several inventors noted that unlike traditional soap and cream, the new canned stuff made a mess. A common idea seems to have been to introduce the stuff directly into your brush for less messy shaving.

…object of the invention is to provide a device of this character whereby a brush carrying element may be detachably connected to the top of an ordinary container having a supply of soap and wherein an element may be operated to actuate the soap dispensing nozzle of the container.

The next one I found was Mr Cleghorn John, whom in 1965 applied for a patent for a shaving brush that you could attach removably to a can of goo… I guess that is legalese for one you press against the top of the can to load.

…the principal object of our invention to provide a shaving brush that will be removably attachable to a lather dispensing container for use either independently, as an ordinary shaving brush, or in conjunction with a pressurized dispensing can for automatically feeding lather directly to the tip of the brush as needed in shaving.

Part of the patent also describes an “improved” aerosol can where the valve was operated by pushing sideways and not down, for use in conjunction with said brush.

Last one that I spotted on the first page of Google Patent Search was Mr Cleghorn John’s patent also applied for in 1965. It actually describes two brushes – with a simple hole through the base for pressing against the valve on a can of foam, one with the can of goo built into the handle…

In the invention in the instant application, these problems are eliminated by encompassing the soap dispensing container in the handle of the shaving brush. The soap is discharged into the base of the brush bristles thereby evenly distributing itself throughout the bristles.

Further, in the event a container separate from the brush is desired or necessary, this invention can readily be adapted to function in substantially the same manner even though utilizing the extraneous soap supply.

While I’ve never been a fan of canned goo myself, at least when the canned shaving foam was new on the marked there was attempts made to make it more like traditional shaving… I wonder if anything like this ever made it to the marked?

Do you manage to drop the soap or powder off the brush before lathering? If so, the invention by Mr D Andrew Albright might be the thing you need:

An object of the invention is to provide a cup-like depression in the ends of the bristles constituting the brush, for the purpose of retaining the cream or powder in the center of the brush and to prevent it from falling from the brush…

While I’m not convinced that a cup shaped  brush would be great for shaving – after all, a common complain about cheap brushes is that they develop a hollow space in the middle – it is interesting to note that the erstwhile inventor suggested a mixed brush:

A further and quite important character istic of the invention resides in the’sectional formation of the brush, the innermost section or core being constructed of relatively stiff bristles, such’as pig bristles, while the outermost surrounding section or’enveloping portion is composed of relatively soft bristles such as soft badger hair, the stiff’ bristles constituting the core being adapted to Work in the lather to soften the beard while preventing the latter from being misplaced, while the encircling section made of soft hair, allows for the spreading and smoothing off of the lather.

I have a couple of mixed brushes myself – one badger/boar and one horse/badger – but they are not built up like this… not sure if any brushes ever has been built with a stiff core and a soft outer shell.

As an aside; can you even get shaving powder any longer?

No worries- Mr C E Le-Valley’s patented improvement in safely razors have you covered.

…invention relates to a safety razor and stropping device, and has for its object to produce a razor of this type having novel means for positioning the blade upon the supporting plate or base and there hold and a device connected to the razor adapted to hold the blade for stropping, all of the parts of which article are a adapted to be taken apart and compactly arranged for carrying

 Sounds confusing? They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and the drawing accompanying the patent is a lot clearer than the description:

While modern stainless blades don’t require stropping, I could see something like this be adapted as a combination SE-razor / shavette.

Is your bathroom chilly in winter? The the patented invention of Mr M M Gravin would be just the thing for you, despite the fact that the purpose of the invention was to provide for a more even shave.

It is a well-known fact in having with a razor that the heating of a razor blade, makes the razor blade out just that much better in shaving the beard. For this reason it is a frequent practice to dip the razor whether open edge or safety razor into hot water before the user shaves. The lather on the face cools the razor and lessen; the efficiency with which it cuts. This makes it necessary to frequently dip the razor in hot Water as the shaving progresses and makes the shaving uneven.

It’s not a well known fact any longer, so I’m not sure if this claim was pure hogwash or if it actually did make a difference with carbon steel blades.

An injector is one of those things I want to try at some point, but it seems that they are harder and more expensive to get hold of than good old DE’s or even out of production SE’s… but if Mr A F Terenzi’s invention had taken off back in ’58, they might have been a lot more common these days.

Taking advantage of the tab that sticks out the side of a dispenser of injector blades, he came up with a simple, seemingly easy to manufacture injector head that allowed the shaver to use the dispenser as a handle.

In the inventors own words, this addressed

the need for an economical razor to take the place of one forgotten or lost in transit or while travelling or when needed, particularly when unexpectedly called away from home or for use in guest rooms, hotels, motels or the like.

 In addition, the inventor pointed out that such a razor head would be semi-disposable:

…an improved, simplified razor blade holder utilizing injector type blades which are currently available and sold in injector blade dispensers, and which according to this invention the blade dispenser may be readily used in conjunction with the improved holder to provide a handle means therefore. As the improved holder of this invention can be economically manufactured, each injector blade dispenser may be provided with a novel holder of this invention so that a user may be provided with a fresh, clean razor with every purchase of such blades, and thereafter the holder may be discarded along with the blade dispenser upon exhaustion of the blade supply.

It is a shame this invention didn’t take off… I would much rather have found something like this in my hotel room than a cheap, plastic disposable, and it would have made a handy, compact travel razor.

More is better, right? And before we had razors with multiple blades, we had razor blades with multiple edges… and if two edges (DE) is good, then three or four edges must be better!

I suspect that was the line of logic Mr J K Waterman followed in 1909 when he applied for a US patent. In is own words, the object of his invention was to provide to the public:

…a safety razor which will be adaptable to all portions of the face, and which will have a great extent of cutting edge, and withal will’ be simple of construction and convenient of manipulation in assembling and separating its parts…

The actual design don’t look too bad, even if getting the curvature right on the head must have been tricky – a regular DE is a two dimensional curve (yes, even a slant), whereas Mr Waterman’s invention required a head curved in three dimensions.

The sticking point with this razor is the blades though… as can be seen in the drawing, they have the shape of a Maltese cross, and would be much costlier and more difficult to manufacture than regular DE blades. Shame really, because the idea of four edges is oddly tempting.