Indicating sealed shaving cup

William 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.

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All in one shaving mug

Shaving 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.

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The Rally dry shaver patent

A 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.

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Attachable and Detachable Back for Razor-Blades

A 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.

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The Big Fellow

The Big Fellow. A new – in 1920 – Old Type. Even if no one called it an Old Type back then, because the New Type wasn’t even a twinkle in Gillette’s eye.

So what is a Big Fellow, and how did I learn about it? Especially seeing as how I’ve not heard the term before, at least not used on a razor?

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