American Safety Razor

How to solve a common problem can lead to fame and fortune

The late 19th century was a period of massive cultural change, business and lifestyle in the United States and Western Europe. Industrialization is booming. Railways have been fully trained and providing fast movement of persons, goods and food to consumers and businesses. Men such as Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan were to transform the trade and innovation. It was a golden age of invention of consumer products.

The ability to innovate in the areas of personal hygiene, comfort and safety have been addressed aggressively for the first time in history. In developing a market for mass consumption has been rising. The confluence of new mass market and a host of new products to meet the perceived needs created a unique confluence of possibilities.

The daily grind of a man shaving facial hair has been such an opportunity.

Today, when viewing photos and images of this age, we are entertained by the highly stylized faces, gloriously grown facial hair seen many men. The smooth face is rarely seen. It seems that the 1890 men strive to develop personalized works of art on their faces.

The reason why so many grown men beard, mustache and goatee was the difficulty inherent in the time in the process of shaving. The water was not always readily available to soften facial hair and soap foam. The hot water was even scarcer. Most men, even of limited means, the barber used to cut facial hair. When shaving the beard of a clean razor sharp steel, right was essential. Straight razors should be regularly sharpened with a razor, and they had to be very sharp. Many men and reduce infection themselves performing this simple act of personal hygiene. Shaving while traveling in a moving train was down right dangerous. The need to address this task was ready to be marketed successfully.

In this gaping void stumbled utopian socialist dreamer named King Gillette. Gillette was considered a sub Achiever by his family. His father was a successful innovator and his mother wrote a famous book, "The White House Cook Book", which remained in print for nearly 100 years. King Gillette had received several patents, but failed in its efforts to commercialize the one of them. He earned his living from working as a street vendor. soured his failures and he plunged into socialism and preached a kind of anti-industrialism.

This most unlikely of capitalists, however, while working as a salesman for Crown Cork and Seal Company was encouraged by his boss to continue to try to invent new products . Specifically, Gillette has been encouraged to invent products as required as a result, purchases of replacements. His passion became the development of a shaving system that has been strong, portable, efficient, profitable and necessary for the buyer to replace the implementation on a regular basis.

King Gillette had used his design for a shaving device, which requires a combination of metals and metallurgical technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Working with engineers from the school honored enabled Gillette to develop the elements of the safety razor. His patents show a device of elegant simplicity.

Gillette razors company formed to commercialize his invention. Initially, because of limited capital and high cost of production, sales were slow. As he analyzed the product, sales potential and virtually no competition, Gillet.