Long time readers of my blog will – perhaps – recall I posted a quick little post about a home made hair trimmer made with a comb, a razor blade and some painters tape a few years ago. To no one’s surprise this wasn’t a new idea – you can buy a dozen variations in all sort of shapes from Chine – but I found an early patent that seems to be inspired by the top cap of a Gillette razor.
Applied for by Mr Domenico Marrazzo in the fall of 1935, the device was claimed to be for the head as well as other parts of the body.

… a combined comb and hair cutter, wherein the blade is so guarded as to prevent accidental i6 cutting of the fingers and to permit the hair cutting portion to be used as a handle when the comb portion is used as a comb.

So hold one end of the device, and it’s a comb. Hold the other end, and it’s a hair cutter. Hope that you remember which end is which when you brush your hair before going on your big date.

It’s a simple enough idea in hindsight – like most good inventions are – and Mr Marrazzo took care to point out that you could make it from almost anything, ad that it would be usefull for anyone regardless of hair length:

The comb may be made of any suitable material such as hard rubber, bakelite or metal such as aluminum or the like.

Said arcuate portion is somewhat greater in length than the length of the blade 14 and has a convex outer surface 11 and a concave inner surface 13 as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. In order that the device may be operative in cutting long hair as well as short hair, the row of teeth 20 on one side of the comb are preferably longer and if desired, coarser than the opposed row 21 on the other side.

All told it sounds like a useful combination tool for those who like to trim their own hair – as highlighted by the fact that variations on this theme is still for sale.

From time to time I come across patents that I’m sad didn’t make it into manufacture… and the single edge razor Mr Frank Pelosi was granted a patent for in May 1931 is one of them. It just looks, well, nice.
Mr Pelosi didn’t claim that his razor would be the best thing since sliced bread, nor that it would be a quantum leap over other razors… just that it would be, well, simpler and better. In his own words:

…an improved razor of this type which comprises a relatively few parts of simple and economical construction, which permits easy and speedy insertion or removal of a separable blade, and which may be small in size and light in weight without sacrifice of operative efficiency.

It’s was a simple twist-to-open open comb razor, which indexed the blade on a rivet mounted on the bottom plate, while the top cap was made from sheet metal and tightened by a knurled knob on the end of the handle.

…the razor comprises a handle 10 having an axial opening 11 therethrough, a guard member 12 mounted in one end of the handle, a rotatable knob or lock nut 13 at the opposite end of the handle, a lock plate 14 arranged to cooperate with the guard to hold a blade 15 therebetween, and an adjusting. stem 16 extending through the hollow handle and having one end engaging a threaded opening 17 in the nut 13 and its opposite end passing through an aperture 18 in the guard 12 and secured to the lock plate. as by a rivet or pin 19 which projects through an opening 20 in plate 14 and is headed over on the top surface of the plate. The stem and lock plate may thus be moved longitudinally of the handle by rotating the lock nut to secure the blade in working position (Fig. 3) or to separate the plate from the guard member and permit insertion or removal of the blade (Fig. 4).

Overall Mr Pelosi’s razor gives the impression of a well though out, workmanlike razor with no frills and only a little thrills. What killed it in the marked was probably the fact that it required it’s own special blades, requiring setting up manufacture of not just the razors, but also the blades.

Simple is often better – after all, it seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove.*
So what can be simpler than a one piece razor that you can insert and remove the blade from without opening it up? Or to go one better; such a razor, but made cheaply and easy from a single piece of sheet metal?
Walter P Keene invented just such a razor, and filed for a patent in the middle of 1925. He did this by a couple of simple metal stampings that fit one inside the other, with a helical slot for the blade. Or as the patent text describes it:

…blade is supported and held between two cylindrical surfaces with the blade edge flexed over an elongated helically cut slot…

The drawing shows how the razor should be held between thumb and fingers, allowing for good control and easy manipulation. The drawing also shows how the outer part of the shell is secured to the inner part with a pair of rivets or bolts, allowing the outer part to rotate in relation the inner part – thus opening and closing it. In the word of the patent text:

In the drawings, numeral 10 designates the outer shell or casing preferably formed of sheet metal in a punch press, consisting of an outer skin contacting surface with a helical cut tapered edge 11, the centers of the radii of this surface forming the axis of the bores formed in the side walls 12 and 13, these walls being preferably formed in planes at right angles to the axis, these walls taking the place of a handle as of the familiar hoe type of safety razor, the walls being grasped as shown by the dotted lines of a hand in Figure 1, a convenient position for use in under arm work, although an equally convenient method is to grasp the rear part of the shells as outlined by line 14:, between the thumb and fingers, either of these methods serving where the handle grasp of an operator is lost.

Supported within the outer shell is a second shell of substantially the same form, drawn of sheet metal, in which the cylindrical and approximated surface to the inner cylindrical surface of shell 10, is struck from radii of less length, so that when they are assembled, there is formed an accurate cylindrical space adapted to receive and hold the razor blade.

It’s worth noting that Mr Keene’s razor required proprietary blades – had he designed it for standard double edged blades (even if only one edge was exposed at any given time), I can actually see this razor being successful. As it is, it seems to have to sunk without a trace.

*) Antoine de Saint Exupéry, in reference to aircraft specifically but all that man do in general.