safety razor

Did King Camp Gillette really invent the safety razor? Gillette's invention, conceived – he claimed – in 1895, was indeed a true innovation – a razor with a thin, two-edged flexible blade intended to be discarded when dull. Advertisements proudly proclaimed No Stropping – No Honing. But prior to Gillette many inventors had attempted to devise a razor safer than the common folding 'cut throat' variety. Edison evidently had not yet seen the newly-invented Star Safety Razor, and he undoubtedly did not have the time to invent a less diabolical shaving instrument. Many other entrepreneurs did. Between 1864 and December 1901, when Gillette submitted his patent application, over 100 razor guard or safety razor patents were applied for and granted by the U.S. Patent Office. Designs were also patented in France, England and undoubtedly elsewhere. On January 10, 1847, William Samuel Henson of Somerset, England filed for a patent showing a detachable comb tooth guard for a straight folding razor and another razor employing a similar guard “…the cutting blade which of which is at right angles with the handle, and resembles somewhat the form of a common hoe.” The handle was attached by screwing it into a tapped hole in a short forged blade. This may have been first patent for a hoe-type guard razor and one of the first razors to use a short section of a straight razor as a blade. Henson specifically says that he does not claim as new “the use or adaptation of a guard or protector to the ordinary razor,” but does claim a new method of attaching the guard. Henson's guard appears to extended slightly below the the blade edge.. Patent figures of Henson's hoe guard razor. The patent was applied for in 1847, published in 1857. Above: Razor and guard marked Poynton. Below: Circa 1800 “friedlische Rasiermesser” (from Die Klinge, 1936). 1851 – The Plantagenet Guard Razor In 1851 Charles Stewart & Company, Charing Cross, London, exhibited a folding straight razor, which they manufactured. Based on Henson's 1847 patent, it had a detachable, non-reversible toothed guard secured by a single screw within a slot in the top of the guard . They called it the Plantagenet razor and marked it Royal Letters Patent with the V-Crown-R indicating it was made during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). In 1887 Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote “The idea of a guarded edge is an old one; I remember the 'Plantagenet' razor, so called, with the comb-like row of blunt teeth, leaving just enough of the edge free to do its work.” Holmes' memory wasn't entirely accurate, the guard extended slightly beyond the cutting edge. Royal Letters Patent PLANTAGENET RAZOR C Stewart & Co. 1864 – Kinloch's Guard Razor In March of 1864 John Kinloch of Philadelphia received a patent for a toothed guard nearly identical to Henson's design. At the time Kinloch was in Regiment 71, Company K of the Pennsylvania Infantry. As part of the Union Army of the Potomac the 71st took part in some of the largest battles of the Civil War including Antietam (1862) and Gettysburg (1863). According to military pension records Kinloch survived the war and died in 1896. His patent states the goal of his invention: With the guard in place , “… the razor may be used without danger of cutting the face by those who are maimed or wounded, and by those who have to shave themselves in situations and under circumstances which render the operation by an ordinary naked razor both tedious and dangerous.” In Kinloch's design the guard teeth project a short distance beyond the cutting-edge of the blade. Kinloch's guard had the advantage of being symmetrical and reversible, that is, it could be used on either side of the blade (which Henson's guard could not). The guard is attached with a screw into a tapped hole in the blade exactly as in the Henson's design. Kinloch's patent drawing. An 1877 guard razor (unfortunately less the guard) is shown in Bernard Levine's Knife Makers of Old San Francisco . The razor was m