Among the Alger-Sullivan museums eclectic displays is a small collection of shaving razors called straight razors that date from the mid-19th century to the 20th century. This collection is not only a recollection of the razors former owner, like many other things in the museum it represents the end of an era. When one thinks of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, steam boats and railroads, massive iron bridges and the first skyscrapers may come to mind. But this period of history also changed many small things in people’s personal lives, one of things was the art of shaving.
The style of a shaved face dates to the earliest civilizations, and for most of that history the tool to accomplish this style was a very sharp knife. Eventually, the knife was modified as to fold between the handle and blade, and the device known as the straight razor evolved. The straight, or “cut-throat razor” was the standard for a few hundred years. Then, as thousands of soldiers tried to stay shaven during the Civil War, young minds began to ask if there wasn’t a safer way to shave quickly. In 1864 the first U.S. patent was made to do so with a guard placed over the blade of a straight razor which looked somewhat like a comb. During the following years however, an entirely new idea of shaving would emerge through the works of a few gifted inventors. These ideas would create a new industry that has offered comfortable forms of personal grooming for more than a century.
Two brothers, Otto & Richard Kampfe, came to New York from Germany in 1870. Opening a small implement shop, they soon invented the “Kampfe rake” which they sold to neighbors from their shop. The razor had a short blade which could be attached to either a straight razor style handle, or to a handle attached in the manner of a hoe. This new hoe style would be the basis of modern safety razors. In 1875 the brothers formed the Star Safety Razor Co. and in 1880 their razor was patented.
Jerry Reichard was a former employee of the Kampfe brothers. In 1898 he began the Gem Cutlery Co. with a razor very similar to the Kampfe razor. Five years later Reichard sold Gem and began a new company; this became the Ever-Ready Safety Razor Co. in 1905. In 1906 the Gem and Ever-Ready companies merged under Personna American Safety Razor Co. In 1919 Star also joined Personna and this new company became the American Safety Razor Corporation. This company produced razors and disposable blades under the names Star, Gem, and Ever-Ready. By 1921 it was the largest U.S. shaving product producer. The company later declined however due to competition, and after many years of losses was sold to Phillip Morris Corp. in 1960.
Henry Gaisman was fatherless at the age of 3. By the age of 9 he was working to help his family and then left school at the age of 13. He was a prolific inventor. In 1904 he received a patent for a razor and self-sharping blade, and soon started the Auto-Strop Safety Razor Co. While running his razor company, in 1914 he invented the autographic camera which printed the date along the edge of a photo. He sold this patent for $300,000.
King Gillette was the son of a mid-western farmer. As a boy, the family moved to Chicago. While working in a bottling company in the early 1890s, Gillette imagined uses for cheap throw away items other than bottle caps and came up with the idea of two-edged stamped razor blades. By 1900 machinist William Nickerson had patented the process and in 1901 Gillette began a company with the patent, calling it the American Safety Razor Co. In 1902 because a small company already operated under that name, Gillette renamed it the Gillette Safety Razor Co. and revolutionized shaving with a cheap disposable razor blade.
In 1927 Henry Gaisman patented an improved model of the double edge Gillette style razor calling it the “Probak”, and in 1928 began the Probak Razor Corp. Later, as a result of a patent infringement lawsuit over the Probak design against the Gillette Co., the two companies merged in 1930. Gaisman then gained a seat on the board of directors and by 1932 he was Chairman of the Gillette Co. After reenergizing the company he retired in 1938, then having a reputed worth of $25 million.
Lastly, a man who had totally different ideas. At the age of 16 Jacob Schick was put in charge of a New Mexico railroad which serviced his father’s coal mines. Growing tired of the west, he joined the U.S. Army in 1898. While recovering from dysentery contracted in the Philippines before 1910, he envisioned the idea of an electric shaver. Later while serving in the Alaska wilderness, he thought of a razor blade system that would dispense blades into a razor in the same manner that bullets were issued into a rifle from the magazine. He left the army in 1918 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1923 he founded the Magazine Repeating Razor Co. Between 1921 and 1929, he applied for five injector razor patents. In 1928 he sold the company in order to concentrate on his electric shaver idea. At the end of 1946 the company was renamed the Schick Safety Razor Division of Eversharp Inc.
In 1930 Colonel Schick patented his first electric shaver. His later electric designs would be the basis for an entirely different style of modern grooming.
The Alger museum is still closed, but you can learn much of our local history through the Alger-Sullivan Historical Society web site and Facebook.
