AutoStrop seems to have had some odd marketing going on in the early part of the last century, like the animated display we looked at two years ago. But even that is peanuts compared to the freaky wooden doll they advertised that they were using fore advertisements.
Continue readingWhen you say post card, you usually think of something vivid and touristy that you’ll mail of to distant relatives when you’re on vacation. But a post card is – when you come down to it – just a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard that you write upon and send in the mail with no envelope. No one ever said it had to include the words “wish you were here” on the back.
Continue readingThe result of over four years of careful study and experimentation. Made after secret formula, and with a superlatively keen edge. So hard it will cut glass. Keener and more durable. And no, I’m not referring to the ad copy of the latest multi-blade plastic horror to be peddled by Gillette. I’m referring to the ad copy from a 1908 advertisement for their “new process” blade.
Continue readingWell, shaving brush with disposable knot, to be precise.
Like so many others – Edward L Corbet, John T Cooney, Marguerite Faučon, and Aron Braunstein & Angel Rattiner to mention just a few – inventors, Gustav Koch searched for a sanitary, hygienic, and disposable shaving brush. If it worked well for making lather, it was a bonus. If it dodn’t need a cup, that would be one less unsanitary item to worry about.
Continue readingImagine that you’re going on a vacation. You have a travel razor to shave with. You probably have a travel brush too. But do you have a folding barber’s chair and stool? No? Then how can you be shaved in style while traveling?
Fear not; Henry Remick have patented a handy, folding chair and stool for barbers (and also dentists and so on). It also came with a telescoping barber pole, because… because why not, I guess.
Continue readingWilliam Herzberg patented an indicating sealed shaving cup in 1911, as part of the quest to make sure that your barber didn’t infect you with whatever ailment the previous customer had.
He was not the first, not the last. We have looked at a great many solutions to that problem over the years. But his solution was different enough and simple enough that it warranted a look.
Continue readingColgate sold their shaving sticks with a handy grip, which you could reuse.
But what about the soap that sat in the grip? There is at least half an inch of soap in there.
No need to waste it though:
Continue readingShaving requires a lot of gear – at least if you want to do it the right way. You will need a brush, a mug, a mirror, and maybe even a styptic pencil. And all that stuff makes a mess on the vanity… unless you got one of the patented all in one shaving mugs invented by Bernard Goodfellow Savage and Albert Cecil Lawless Loughran, that is.
Continue readingA little while back – because four years is nothing – I wrote a little piece on the Rally dry shaver. And now, while aimlessly poking through online patent texts, I found the patent for it.
Filed in the US and Germany by a Swede, the Rally was, as I mentioned, a lawnmower for your face. A handy way to get rid of that five o’clock shadow. A great gift that would likely be used twice and then put in a drawer.
Continue readingA problem challenge with straight razors is that they require skill to keep sharp. A safety razor on the other hand – be it using double edged, single edged, or even wedge blades – requires a lot less skill. So it is perhaps inevitable that someone will come up with a straight that uses replacable blades. Today we often call them shavettes. But when A V Brokhahne and C Langbein patented an early version back in 1887, they choose a more descriptive name: attachable and detachable back for razor-blades.