26th July 2008
Few people can have sold more
products than Gillette whose name
is synonymous with shaving and
razors blades for most of the 20th
century. At a time when razors
were of the ‘cut-throat’ variety and
when shavers needed to sharpen
their blade to dangerously sharp
levels on a leather ‘strop’ before
shaving – the advent of an
incredibly sharp blade that was to
some extent disposable but which more importantly was far less of a risk to use, must have been a welcome new product.
Gillette set out to invent something that would be disposable and consequently would earn him a lot of money. He certainly succeeded in that since his manufacturing empire started in 1903 with just 150 odd sales but had grown to over 12 million by 1904 – just one year later ! Gillette retired from production in 1913 but stayed involved as president until the 1930’s .
One aspect of the safety razor of interest to ‘design and technologists’ is the use of particular alloy of steel. With only a very small change in the amount of carbon and other metals in the steel the blade can be heat treated to make it tougher and less resistant to being broken at a microscopic level. Very hard materials are also very brittle and a very sharp edge is easily damaged because of this
products than Gillette whose name
is synonymous with shaving and
razors blades for most of the 20th
century. At a time when razors
were of the ‘cut-
when shavers needed to sharpen
their blade to dangerously sharp
levels on a leather ‘strop’ before
shaving – the advent of an
incredibly sharp blade that was to
some extent disposable but which more importantly was far less of a risk to use, must have been a welcome new product.
Gillette set out to invent something that would be disposable and consequently would earn him a lot of money. He certainly succeeded in that since his manufacturing empire started in 1903 with just 150 odd sales but had grown to over 12 million by 1904 – just one year later ! Gillette retired from production in 1913 but stayed involved as president until the 1930’s .
One aspect of the safety razor of interest to ‘design and technologists’ is the use of particular alloy of steel. With only a very small change in the amount of carbon and other metals in the steel the blade can be heat treated to make it tougher and less resistant to being broken at a microscopic level. Very hard materials are also very brittle and a very sharp edge is easily damaged because of this
property of the material - so it becomes much less effective. When seen under a microscope the edge looks quite jagged and pitted - marks in the metal from being scratched in use. The right alloy would permit the sharpness to remain for much longer.. A perfect example of an inventor / designer knowing what materials need to do and then setting about finding the right one.
Inventors & Inventions
IF IN DOUBT ASK !!!!
1855 - 1932
