On July 9, 1932, King Camp Gillette died. The minion of fate, who created a huge corporation from scratch, considered himself a failure: he did not remake the world, although he was going to. But humanity is not at a loss: Gillette saved him from daily torture - he invented a safety razor.
Not only did Gillette do just that, his razors with replaceable blades taught consumers about the fragility of things, bringing to life disposable utensils, disposable books, and a whole “disposable” philosophy. And it all started, as usual, with long and fruitless attempts to get rich.
The future "razor king" (the parents prophetically named their son King) was born in 1855 in the town of Fond du Lac in Wisconsin. His father, the owner of a hardware store, was literally obsessed with invention, constantly improving everything that came to hand. The King brothers did the same. Shortly after Gillette Sr.'s shop was destroyed by fire in 1871, he obtained a job as a patent agent in New York. His 16-year-old son also moved there. He began to earn money on his own, becoming a traveling salesman, delivering the products of a hardware company.
Traveling all over the country for many years and trading in a wide variety of goods, Gillette acquired a colossal experience of persuasion, which later helped him a lot. All this time, he did not stop inventing - the original mechanism of the piston and bushing for a water tap, several types of electrical conductors, a new valve made of soft rubber ... All these were useful things in everyday life, but acquired patents big money the inventor was not brought. Gillette later admitted that he did not have enough time or money to promote his new products himself, and others usually got the money. We needed another invention that would immediately revolutionize the market and make its author a millionaire.
Gillette's search was directed by his boss, William Painter, owner of Crown Cork & Seal in Baltimore. Painter himself invented one valuable and still in demand gizmo - a bottle stopper (Crown Cork), which was a pewter cap with a gasket attached to it. Seeing how his salesman was constantly trying in vain to invent something, Painter advised Gillette to consider something as practical, cheap and disposable as his cork. Above something that the buyer will not be sorry to throw away in order to immediately go to the store for the next purchase.
“After this memorable advice, the invention of a new consumer product with a short lifespan turned into an obsession for me,” Gillette recalled. “I went over in my memory almost all human needs, all spheres of human activity, but to no avail.”
King married the daughter of an oilman, Atlanta Gaines (having bought the first decent suit in his life) and moved to Boston, where he got a job at Crown Cork & Seal. Its owner, William Paynter, was a successful inventor. It was he who came up with, say, the beer cork with a corrugated edge familiar to us today - the crown cork. The example turned out to be contagious.
“The invention of a new everyday product with a short lifespan became an obsession for me,” Gillette recalled. The idea did not come, and in anguish he composed a plan for the reorganization of the world, set out in the book "The Future of Humanity." Gillette proposed to build the giant city of Metropolis in the Great Lakes region and transport the entire population of the United States there. The city was planned to be supplied with electricity at the expense of Niagara Falls, and its citizens were supposed to work, eat and culturally relax in huge common halls. With the appearance of such cities in other countries, the borders were to disappear, and the world would be ruled by the United Company supercorporation, whose shareholders would be all the inhabitants of the Earth.
Disposable dream
On a summer morning in 1895, Gillette found that his razor was hopelessly dull. They could sharpen it only in the workshop, which means that they would have to scrape their cheeks with a blunt blade, keeping medicines at the ready (a razor, unchanged since the time of Ancient Egypt, was called dangerous not for a red word). And suddenly ... “I saw the whole new razor,” Gillette later recalled, “in one second I asked myself dozens of questions and answered them. I stood and smiled like the last fool.
The new razor was supposed to look like this: two plates, between them - a sharpened piece of steel tape (the blade itself) and a T-shaped handle. It was impossible to cut yourself badly with a new blade; when it became dull, it was simply replaced with a new one.
All that remained was to put the invention into practice. “I didn’t understand anything about razors, and I understood even less about the properties of steel,” Gillette admitted. He bought a coil of steel tape for watch springs, but it turned out that this steel was not suitable for blades. Months and years passed in a fruitless search, on which he spent all his savings - $ 25 thousand.
Six years passed in a fruitless search. Gillette went around all the grinders, all specialized shops in Boston and New York, trying to figure out how to make thin steel harder, at what temperature it is best to temper it in order to avoid blade distortion. Even specialists from one of the most reputable scientific centers - the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - shrugged their shoulders in embarrassment. And friends and colleagues advised him to throw this crazy idea out of his head.
Finally, in 1901, fate brought Gillette to mechanical engineer William Nickerson, who came up with the technology for strengthening and sharpening steel tape. After that, things got off the ground - a patent was received for a T-shaped safety razor (which can be opened to change a dull blade to a new one) and the company for its production, the American Safety Razor Company, was founded (in July 1902, it changed its name to Gillette Safety Razor Company). However, the initial capital quickly dried up, and the partners - Gillette and Nickerson with two of their friends - placed the company's shares on the stock exchange, bailing out another $ 5 thousand. But those soon disappeared, and the cost of razors was still too high for a disposable item.
The company was saved by the gift of persuasion possessed by a traveling salesman with thirty years of experience. Gillette managed to attract investors, and in 1903 began mass production his razors. However, the start of the newborn company did not inspire optimism. The head of the company did his best to keep investors, assuring them that it takes time for a new product to win the sympathy of the buyer. And his expectations were justified - already in next year more than a hundred thousand Americans bought Gillette products, and by 1908, profits exceeded $13 million.
New razors cost $5, despite the fact that the average monthly salary of an American then did not exceed $100. It is not surprising that for the first year only 51 machines and 168 blades were sold . To save his family from starvation, Gillette returned to Cork & Seal and took over the UK branch. But a year later he returned - sales grew every day. The reason was simple: machines for safety blades began to sell below cost and even give away for nothing. This strategy, applied simply out of desperation, has entered all marketing textbooks as the “bait and hook model”: the main product is sold below cost, and the profit is made on “consumables”.
It was calculated that Gillette's invention saves a man at least 20 minutes a day, which for the Yankees who value time has become a decisive argument. In 1915, the Gillette Company sold 450,000 razors and 70 million blades, and its triumphant founder called his razor "the greatest of the little things."
Literally in two years, Gillette became a millionaire - thanks not only to the invention itself, but also to the undoubted talent of the entrepreneur (even though he appeared in his fifth decade of life). The main achievement of Gillette as a businessman was a non-standard marketing ploy, which has since become a classic: the manufacturer of razors began to sell them below cost, even giving them away for free! So he accustomed consumers to his products and forced them to buy more and more blades.
This was the main invention of King Camp Gillette. The business model that in the 19th century was called the “razor-blade”, and today is called the “bait and hook” model, when the main product is sold at a deliberately low price, and the profit is obtained by repeatedly selling a consumable product, without which the main one does not work. In fact, we are talking about a special form of sale in installments: the consumer eventually compensates the company's costs for the production of the main product by buying expendable materials. As Gillette himself used to say, "you don't have to spare money to buy the market."
Already by 1906, Gillette had developed a distribution network in Europe and extended his patent for another 20 years, which allowed his company to remain a monopolist for a long time. Competitors who tried to bypass the patent were prosecuted by the head of Gillette, and the largest and most persistent ones were simply bought.
Another engine of the shaving business was the First World War. Men in uniform were supposed to look neat, and there was no time and conditions for shaving in the trenches. Gillette's razor was the perfect way out. The slogan was born: "Every military man should have this!" - and the US Army immediately purchased 3.5 million machines. As a result, the habit of replacement blades was brought home from the front not only by Americans, but also by soldiers of other nations. AT different countries branches of the company sprouted like mushrooms. Profits grew, but then came the fateful year of 1921, when the 20-year patent for the invention was due to end. Gillette was informed that several companies were ready to produce his product at dumping prices at once.
He was ahead of everyone: he threw a $ 1 razor on the market - cheaper than competitors could afford. A new advertising concept also worked - shaving as the apotheosis of masculinity. On the poster "You have become an adult, son!" the father was solemnly presenting the big son with a safety razor. The famous slogan "Gillette - there is no better for a man" appeared a quarter of a century later.
Having crushed rivals, Gillette again thought about happiness for all mankind. He suggested that all the governments of the world resign and transfer power to a worldwide corporation, which was to be headed by Theodore Roosevelt. Upon receiving such an offer, the retired US president slyly asked, “How can I trust a man who sells razors and wears a mustache?” Following Roosevelt, another ex-president, William Taft, and automobile king Henry Ford refused to lead the world. Gillette was disappointed - he planned to use the $ 200 million earned on razors to equip the world government. And now there was nothing to spend money on: having retained the Spartan habits of his youth, King did not spend money on yachts, nor on racehorses, nor on bathing in champagne young lovers. True, he loved to travel - he liked that he was recognized in every corner of the world by the image on the packaging of razors.
Throughout his life, Gillette was faithful to his wife, and made his only son, King Jr., a member of the board of directors of the company. He himself retired and moved to California, where he founded a farm with orange plantations. After learning from doctors about the healing properties of oranges, he was going to feed them to all American children.
This romantic dream was shattered by the Great Crisis of 1929. The Gillette company resisted, but got rid of its founder by buying his share of shares for next to nothing. New fight with poverty, King could not stand it - in July 1932 he died in his orange paradise. And the corporation he created returned to prosperity, constantly expanding the scope of activities. Over the years she has acquired large companies Braun (consumer electronics), Oral-B (toothbrushes), Waterman and Parker (fountain pens), Duracell (batteries). In the 1980s, Gillette produced over a thousand items. The famous razor was also changing - in 1947, blades wrapped in oiled paper were replaced by even safer cassettes with built-in blades. And in 2005, another giant, Procter & Gamble, bought the corporation for $57 billion. But familiar to everyone trademark, the image of the mustachioed founding father on the packaging, has been preserved - as a memory of an era when business was inseparable from romance, and grandiose profits from even grander ideas.
Shortly before his death, in 1926, when the 25th anniversary of Gillette was celebrated, its founder declared: “I do not know of another consumer product like our safety razor. In my travels, I met her everywhere - from the fishing village in northern Norway to the Sahara desert. However, even in his wildest dreams, Gillette hardly guessed how widely his invention would be used. Having dreamed of utopian projects all his life, Gillette was able to change the world - although not in the direction he thought about. He turned shaving from daily torture into an easy, non-burdensome procedure. Moreover, Gillette's invention gave mankind a new vector of development - disposable razors were inevitably followed by disposable pens, disposable tableware, disposable clothes.
Gillette celebrated its centennial anniversary as one of the world leaders in the market of not only shaving accessories, but also dental care products, perfumes and household hygiene products - even writing instruments and household electrical appliances! Today, the "brand portfolio" of the company has almost a thousand items.
sources
http://alexyanovsky.com
Vadim ERLIKHMAN - http://www.point.ru
The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -History of Gillette
King Camp Gillette, the inventor of the disposable razor and the founder of the company that bears his name, proved that big money can be made on small things - household items that are cheap but are used every day.
Just like a cork
Surprisingly, but own business, which quickly made him a millionaire, King Camp Gillette founded only on the eve of his fiftieth birthday. Prior to that, he worked as a traveling salesman for 30 years.
The future "razor king" (the parents prophetically named their son King) was born in 1855 in the town of Fond du Lac in Wisconsin. His father, the owner of a hardware store, was literally obsessed with invention, constantly improving everything that came to hand. The King brothers did the same. Shortly after Gillette Sr.'s shop was destroyed by fire in 1871, he obtained a job as a patent agent in New York. His 16-year-old son also moved there. He began to earn money on his own, becoming a traveling salesman, delivering the products of a hardware company.
Traveling all over the country for many years and trading in a wide variety of goods, Gillette acquired a colossal experience of persuasion, which later helped him a lot. All this time, he did not stop inventing - an original mechanism made of a piston and a sleeve for a water tap, several types of electrical conductors, a new valve made of soft rubber ... All these were useful things in everyday life, but the acquired patents did not bring a lot of money to the inventor. Gillette later admitted that he did not have enough time or money to promote his new products himself, and others usually got the money. We needed another invention that would immediately revolutionize the market and make its author a millionaire.
Gillette's search was directed by his boss, William Painter, owner of Crown Cork & Seal in Baltimore. Painter himself invented one valuable and still in demand gizmo - a bottle stopper (Crown Cork), which was a pewter cap with a gasket attached to it. Seeing how his salesman was constantly trying in vain to invent something, Painter advised Gillette to consider something as practical, cheap and disposable as his cork. Above something that the buyer will not be sorry to throw away in order to immediately go to the store for the next purchase.
“After this memorable advice, the invention of a new consumer product with a short lifespan turned into an obsession for me,” Gillette recalled. “I went over in my memory almost all human needs, all spheres of human activity, but to no avail.”
And only in the summer of 1895 it dawned on him.
Valuable junk merchandise
One morning, while performing his daily male ritual, the salesman discovered that his razor had once again become dull. I had to take it back to the grinder, wasting time and money.
“I stood with a razor in my hand,” King Camp later wrote. – And suddenly I quite clearly imagined the future Gillette machine! In a matter of seconds, a lot of questions flashed through my head, but the answers were instantly, as if it all happened in a dream.
Gillette first noticed that only a thin blade works in a razor, and the rest serves to support it - although the production of a handle also takes time and money. At that time, the handle was made of expensive steel and decorated with carvings, chasing and other excesses. Why not come up with a more economical way to hold the blade and extend the life of the blade itself? Or maybe go even further - go to replaceable cheap blades?
Thus was born the idea of an interchangeable blade sharpened on both sides, as well as a T-shaped cheap handle with clips. Prior to this, the design of the razor had not changed for centuries, and its use was a risky and unpleasant procedure - it is no coincidence that the razor was called “dangerous” for a long time. It was only in the mid-1870s that the Kempfe brothers in Germany invented a “safe” but forged blade with a blade that required constant sharpening.
Gillette thought of a fundamentally different machine with a different blade - thin, strong, light and cheap, so that it could be thrown away and replaced after each shave. Potential buyers all adult men in the world should have become such a product - regardless of their nationality, wealth and education. This was a brilliant invention, the patent for which could enrich the inventor overnight.
Gillette began to experiment and immediately ran into a major obstacle - all the experts to whom he turned for advice unanimously argued that the modern industry simply does not produce the steel necessary for the new razor - at the same time thin, durable and cheap. The inventor did not yet know then that a special steel would be required, the cost of which would be much more expensive than the calculated one. Nor did he know that the lab tests alone would cost a quarter of a million dollars. When Gillette realized this, the enthusiasm of potential investors dropped to zero.
Six years passed in a fruitless search. Gillette went to all the grinders, all the specialty shops in Boston and New York, trying to figure out how to harden thin steel, at what temperature it should be tempered to avoid blade distortion. Even specialists from one of the most reputable scientific centers - the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - shrugged their shoulders in embarrassment. And friends and colleagues advised him to throw this crazy idea out of his head.
Finally, in 1901, fate brought Gillette to mechanical engineer William Nickerson, who came up with the technology for strengthening and sharpening steel tape. After that, things got off the ground - a patent was received for a T-shaped safety razor (which can be opened to change a dull blade to a new one) and the company for its production, the American Safety Razor Company, was founded (in July 1902, it changed its name to Gillette Safety Razor Company). However, the initial capital quickly dried up, and the partners - Gillette and Nickerson with two of their friends - placed the company's shares on the stock exchange, bailing out another $ 5 thousand. But those soon disappeared, and the cost of razors was still too high for a disposable item.
The company was saved by the gift of persuasion possessed by a traveling salesman with thirty years of experience. Gillette managed to attract investors, and in 1903 began mass production of his razors. However, the start of the newborn company did not inspire optimism - in the first year, only 51 machines and 168 blades were sold. The head of the company did his best to keep investors, assuring them that it takes time for a new product to win the sympathy of the buyer. And his expectations were justified - the very next year, more than a hundred thousand Americans bought Gillette products, and by 1908 the profit exceeded $ 13 million.
Bait and hook
Disposable world
Shortly before his death, in 1926, when the 25th anniversary of the Gillette company was celebrated, its founder declared: “I do not know another product of everyday individual demand like our safety razor. In my travels, I met her everywhere - from the fishing village in northern Norway to the Sahara desert. However, even in his wildest dreams, Gillette hardly guessed how widely his invention would be used. Having dreamed of utopian projects all his life, Gillette was able to change the world - although not in the direction he thought about. He turned shaving from daily torture into an easy, non-burdensome procedure. Moreover, Gillette's invention gave humanity a new vector of development - disposable razors were inevitably followed by disposable pens, disposable tableware, disposable clothes.
Gillette celebrated its centennial anniversary as one of the world leaders in the market of not only shaving accessories, but also dental care products, perfumes and household hygiene - even writing instruments and household electrical appliances! Today, the "brand portfolio" of the company has almost a thousand items.
This is a series of materials prepared by Vladimir Voronov together with experts from 5 areas. Our illustrated articles will help you develop leadership qualities and become a real leader for others. Every day we will publish a new lesson for the future leader and accompany it with a story about an outstanding leader. Also, at the end of each article you will find exercises that will help you develop your leadership skills!
When King Gillette was twenty-one years old, he began to invent all sorts of things. His father and brothers were also inventors. But they made all sorts of trinkets that did not bring them any income. Like many people in his position, Gillette blamed everything for his failures - lack of time, money and much more, but not himself.
At 36, King Gillette got a job as a traveling salesman. For many years, wandering around the country and trading in a wide variety of goods, the future "razor king" gained tremendous experience in persuasion, which later helped him a lot.
King invented the famous razor at the age of 40. Almost immediately, he founded The Gillette Company, which began manufacturing the disposable safety razor in 1903.
The invention has revolutionized! In just two years, Gillette became a millionaire. Today, Gillette razors and blades are sold in the billions.
- Read also:
From an interview with King: “For a while I lived in Brooklyn and constantly thought about how to invent something that people would have to throw away after use and then buy again.
One fine morning, when I started to shave, I found that my razor was dull, and so much so that the razor straightening strap could not fix anything. I realized that the razor would have to be taken to a grinder or a barber shop. And as I stood holding it in my hand, my gaze fell on it, and it was as if a bird had flown into its nest—the Gillette Razor was born! In a second, I saw everything at once: I saw how the blade was attached, then the idea came to sharpen both ends of a thin strip of steel, then, as if by themselves, the plates that attached the blade, and the handle located between its edges, came up with themselves.
King also dreamed of creating a one world government. He offered to take the post of head of Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft and Henry Ford. They refused, greatly disappointing the razor magnate. He planned to spend $200 million on a dream, but now he did not know where to invest the money. He did not like to spend money on luxury goods.
Vest loved to travel. All his life he was faithful to his wife. He spent his old age in California, where he founded a farm with orange plantations.
The 77-year-old founder of disposables himself, shortly before his death, modestly remarked: “Of all the great inventions, the disposable razor is the greatest of the little things.” The trifle turned out to be truly great - the famous seller of the moment left one of the largest fortunes in America as a legacy to his family.
The main rule for the success of King Camp Gillette: Slowly but steadily moving towards the goal, you can achieve phenomenal success.
- Read also:
Tasks-exercises for future leaders prepared by the coach Describe how the concepts of "dream" and "success" are related using the example of King Kemp Gillette. What qualities led King Kemp Gillett to wealth? And what qualities did he lack to hold his position? Do you think that if King Camp Gillette had not become an inventor, he would have been successful? Why do you think so? These tasks are prepared by the coach
King Camp Gillette didn't just invent and promote the safety razor. He instilled in customers a new culture of consumption - when a thing is simply thrown away after use, and does not serve for years. He came up with a new ideology, opened the era of disposable handkerchiefs, lighters, cups and plates. A brilliant idea that is still bearing fruit. Every year, the ideological followers of Gillette master new areas of production, making the world of things more and more disposable.
One summer morning back in 1895, he looked in the mirror at his overgrown physiognomy and muttered a short and sonorous curse, various versions of which are pronounced every day by all men, regardless of language, country and profession. They all equally hate the procedure of morning shaving. Especially with a dull razor.
This time the performer of the traditional aria was 40-year-old sales agent King Kemp Gillette, a successful distributor of a new type of bottle caps. He, however, was attracted by other shores. He dreamed of inventing something. Something so simple and beautiful.
He was born and raised in a provincial town with a sonorous French name Fond du Lac (Lake Deep), in the state of Wisconsin. Everything here reeked of moss and solidity. Slow life, patriarchal customs, serious bearded faces, long winter evenings. It wasn't for him. As, however, not for his father, from whom he inherited a quick mind and considerable pride. To go into business and educate his son, Gillette's father moved the family to Chicago: Big city - great opportunities, he used to say. There, Gillette Sr. opened a repair and maintenance workshop. sewing machines. She brought a good income, and this inspired hope for the best. Everything collapsed due to the Chicago fire of 1871 - the legendary disaster American history, which mixed cards and melted down many destinies. The workshop burned down, and with it the whole thing. Soon his father started drinking, and King had to take care of the family.
He found a job quickly. A small company selling household items - from toothpicks to soap - accepted a smiling and energetic young man for the position of sales agent. King knew how to sell and quickly gained a reputation as a promising employee. He traveled with the goods not only across the American expanses, but also mastered England, cutting through the company for which he honestly worked, a window to Europe. But the childhood dream of becoming an inventor did not leave him. Time only spurred his passion: the end of the last century was the era of inventions - telephone and radio, light bulbs and cars.
In 1891, Mr. Gillette moved to Baltimore and took a job new job in the company Baltimore Seal Company that produced corkscrews and corks. He befriended William Poynter, the inventor of the corkscrew and the cork-lined brass cap, the one most commonly associated today with the vodka bottle. On the first Sunday of the month, he invited King to dinner. Soon, Sunday dinners became regular - friends discussed engineering innovations, fantasized from the heart.
The conversation about the next discovery was invariably accompanied by the opening and drinking of a bottle of Californian wine or even French cognac. Once, uncorking another bottle and looking at the elegant cap of his own invention, Painter remarked:
- King, you're always trying to invent something like that. Do you know what came to my mind? After all, perhaps the main charm of my cork is its cheapness and fragility. I opened the bottle, twisted it back and forth a couple of times, and that's it - in the trash. Think! King liked this idea. She exuded novelty. He said many times that it is time to cast aside the ambitions of the inventors of the past centuries, who claimed eternity. He sincerely believed that it should be easier. No sooner said than done. Made - used. Used - discarded. Very in the spirit of the times. There was enough ideology and inspiration, but a scientific approach was required. The dictionary seemed to be the quintessence of the rational method. In the evenings, King leafed through it dreamily, reading every word denoting an object. "Noun" - something surfaced from the depths of school childhood. "A" - a diamond to cut glass. No, there is already such a thing. "B" is the bottle for which I sell corks. "B" is a bike. Why am I going to reinvent the wheel in my old age? He yawned and closed the dictionary.
And the next morning...
20 years later, he recalled this morning like this: “I looked in the mirror and, starting to shave, immediately discovered that my razor was hopelessly dull. It was not just stupid, but hopelessly. I could not sharpen it myself. It was necessary go to the hairdresser or to the grinder. I stood looking at the razor in confusion, and that's when an idea was born in my head. Or a picture. I don't know. In any case, I know for sure that at that moment the Gillette razor was born "I saw it in its entirety, in one second I asked myself dozens of questions and answered each of them. Everything happened quickly, like in a dream, and looked more like a revelation than a rational reflection."
American razors of the late 90s almost exactly repeated, surprisingly, their ancient Egyptian prototype. They consisted of a blade, the back of which was attached to the handle and was tightly soldered into it. Gillette's idea was that the back was not needed. It is enough to sharpen a thin strip of steel on both sides and fix it in a simple, removable horizontal holder, which, in turn, would be attached to the handle perpendicularly. Once the blade became dull, it could be thrown out and a new one inserted. The design was extremely simple. "I stood and smiled like a fool. Actually, I was a fool. I did not understand anything about razors, and I understood even less about the properties of steel."
"Done. Our future is secured," he wrote to his wife, who was visiting relatives in Ohio. And, as always, he was quick. It took 11 years of trial and error before the invention brought even a cent. But King didn't know about it yet. Encouraged, he flew into the nearest hardware store, where he bought a coil of steel tape for making watch springs, basic tools and drawing paper. With all this, he went home and a week later brought to light the first razor with disposable blades. The struggle for the durability of the blade has been replaced by the struggle for cheapness. King was confident in the success of his enterprise. After all, a skein of tape cost only 16 cents a pound, and according to his calculations, 500 blades should have been obtained from a pound.
"Without a technical education, I had no idea that I needed a special quality steel, much more expensive than the one with which I began my experiments." But King literally went crazy with his idea, making more and more new modifications of the razor. Over the next 8 years of experiments, in a grueling struggle for the cheapness of the blade, he spent more than $ 25 thousand. He hardly saw anyone and spent all day sitting in the laboratory or over the drawings. We needed thin, strong and at the same time cheap steel. The specialists to whom he turned advised to abandon the meaningless search. Tempering a steel strip of this thickness is like trying to sew a dress out of thread. If Gillette had received the appropriate technical education, he would have given up a long time ago and gave up.
But he didn't back down. Things got off the ground in 1900, when William Nickerson, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, took up the technical embodiment of Gillette's idea. Nickerson developed a technology for strengthening and sharpening steel tape. A few more months of work - and the solution is found. Gillette finished designing the final model. When he finally crawled out of his self-imposed confinement, his friends ridiculed him:
You, my friend, are completely wild. Have you ever seen yourself in the mirror? He invented the razor, and he himself is overgrown, as if you live in the forest.
He was not offended, but took note. He had already thought about it. The trouble was that, as a sin, beards began to come into fashion again. The representatives of the royal families of Europe were the first to wear a beard, and then the wave came to America. It will not be possible to break the fashion, but a compromise is possible. Mustache - why not a compromise? This is how the very famous Gillette mustache appeared, which became the trademark of the company. But neither the owner of the mustache himself nor those to whom he tried to offer his invention believed in their magical power. Friends joked, but investors and engineers remained indifferent and did not blow their heads.
Yet in 1901, Gillette managed to convince a few friends to invest small amounts in the business as initial capital. Having collected $5 thousand, he received a patent for his invention and opened a company. The first disposable razors hit the market in 1903. This year we managed to sell 51 razors and 168 blades. In the next - 91 thousand razors and 123 thousand blades. By 1908, sales exceeded $13 million. During the First World War, the beard fashion naturally died out, and the demand for razors skyrocketed. Gillette's finest hour has arrived. War time and field conditions demanded a simplified way of life. Disposable razors were very handy. They solved many problems at once: they were cheap, easy to use, did not require maintenance and, being disposable, guaranteed hygiene. In addition, with them there was no need for a regimental barber. Gillette's razors began to diverge in unprecedented quantities. By 1917, 1 million razors and 120 million blades were being sold annually.
The war is over, but the habit of shaving yourself remains. The famous paradox "Who shaves the barber if he only shaves those who don't shave themselves?" gone down in history. The year 1921 has come. The 20-year term of the original exclusive patent was expiring, which meant that the very next day after its expiration, any company could throw disposable razors on the market and compete with Gillette. "Intelligence" reported that several manufacturers are ready to produce cheap imitations of Gillette razors. The fate of the company hung in the balance. Six months before the patent expired, Gillette developed and released new model at $1 a piece (previous cost from $5). That year, the company's revenue was record-breaking.
By 1930, Gillette had merged with its main competitor. Until the beginning of the Second World War, it continued to expand. The razor came into fashion, in which the blade was inserted into a one-piece plastic case. After use, it was thrown away all, and not just the blade. In addition, the company began to produce shaving accessories and shaving creams. In 1947, after the death of the inventor (he died in 1932), the disposable razor experienced a rebirth. The usual oil-paper-wrapped individual blades have been replaced by safety cassettes with built-in blades. Then, in 1957, Gillette's first moving head razor appeared. The latest model of Gillette's three-blade razor called Mach has been flashed many times in commercials on Russian TV screens. And we, like all progressive humanity, have joined the civilized one-time channel, contributing to billions of sales of razors, 40 billions of sales of blades, to the work of thousands of factories not only in America, but also in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Mexico , England, France, Germany and Switzerland. Now in our homes there are packages with the famous mustache of the inventor of disposable razors, King Gillette. The 77-year-old founder of disposability and the seller of momentary shortly before his death modestly remarked: "Of all the great inventions, the disposable razor is the greatest of the little things."
Gillette could die in peace. After all, he left one of the largest fortunes in America as a legacy to his family.
One summer morning back in 1895, he looked in the mirror at his overgrown physiognomy and muttered a short and sonorous curse, various versions of which are pronounced every day by all men, regardless of language, country and profession. They all equally hate the procedure of morning shaving. Especially with a dull razor.
This time the performer of the traditional aria was 40-year-old sales agent King Kemp Gillette, a successful distributor of a new type of bottle caps. He, however, was attracted by other shores. He dreamed of inventing something. Something so simple and beautiful.
He was born and raised in a provincial town with a sonorous French name Fond du Lac (Lake Deep), in the state of Wisconsin. Everything here reeked of moss and solidity. Slow life, patriarchal customs, serious bearded faces, long winter evenings. It wasn't for him. As, however, not for his father, from whom he inherited a quick mind and considerable pride. To go into business and educate his son, Gillette's father moved the family to Chicago: big city - big opportunities, he used to say. There, Gillette Sr. opened a workshop for the repair and maintenance of sewing machines. She brought a good income, and this inspired hope for the best. Everything collapsed due to the Chicago fire of 1871 - the legendary catastrophe of American history, which mixed cards and melted down many destinies. The workshop burned down, and with it the whole thing. Soon his father started drinking, and King had to take care of the family.
He found a job quickly. A small company selling household items - from toothpicks to soap - accepted a smiling and energetic young man for the position of sales agent. King knew how to sell and quickly gained a reputation as a promising employee. He traveled with the goods not only across the American expanses, but also mastered England, cutting through the company for which he honestly worked, a window to Europe. But the childhood dream of becoming an inventor did not leave him. Time only spurred his passion: the end of the last century was the era of inventions - telephone and radio, light bulbs and cars.
In 1891, Mr. Gillette moved to Baltimore and took a new job with the Baltimore Seal Company, which made corkscrews and corks. He befriended William Poynter, the inventor of the corkscrew and the cork-lined brass cap, the one most commonly associated today with the vodka bottle. On the first Sunday of the month, he invited King to dinner. Soon, Sunday dinners became regular - friends discussed engineering innovations, fantasized from the heart.
The conversation about the next discovery was invariably accompanied by the opening and drinking of a bottle of Californian wine or even French cognac. Once, uncorking another bottle and looking at the elegant cap of his own invention, Painter remarked:
King, you all want to invent something like that. Do you know what came to my mind? After all, perhaps the main charm of my cork is its cheapness and fragility. I opened the bottle, twisted it back and forth a couple of times, and that's it - in the trash. Think! King liked this idea. She exuded novelty. He said many times that it is time to cast aside the ambitions of the inventors of the past centuries, who claimed eternity. He sincerely believed that it should be easier. No sooner said than done. Made - used. Used - discarded. Very in the spirit of the times. There was enough ideology and inspiration, but a scientific approach was required. The dictionary seemed to be the quintessence of the rational method. In the evenings, King leafed through it dreamily, reading every word denoting an object. "Noun" - something surfaced from the depths of school childhood. "A" - a diamond to cut glass. No, there is already such a thing. "B" is the bottle for which I sell corks. "B" is a bike. Why am I going to reinvent the wheel in my old age? He yawned and closed the dictionary.
And the next morning...
Best of the day
20 years later, he recalled this morning like this: “I looked in the mirror and, starting to shave, immediately discovered that my razor was hopelessly dull. It was not just stupid, but hopelessly. I could not sharpen it myself. It was necessary go to the hairdresser or to the grinder. I stood looking at the razor in confusion, and that's when an idea was born in my head. Or a picture. I don't know. In any case, I know for sure that at that moment the Gillette razor was born "I saw it in its entirety, in one second I asked myself dozens of questions and answered each of them. Everything happened quickly, like in a dream, and looked more like a revelation than a rational reflection."
American razors of the late 90s almost exactly repeated, surprisingly, their ancient Egyptian prototype. They consisted of a blade, the back of which was attached to the handle and was tightly soldered into it. Gillette's idea was that the back was not needed. It is enough to sharpen a thin strip of steel on both sides and fix it in a simple, removable horizontal holder, which, in turn, would be attached to the handle perpendicularly. Once the blade became dull, it could be thrown out and a new one inserted. The design was extremely simple. "I stood and smiled like a fool. Actually, I was a fool. I did not understand anything about razors, and I understood even less about the properties of steel."
"Done. Our future is secure," he wrote to his wife, who was visiting relatives in Ohio. And, as always, he was quick. It took 11 years of trial and error before the invention brought even a cent. But King didn't know about it yet. Encouraged, he flew into the nearest hardware store, where he bought a coil of steel tape for making watch springs, basic tools and drawing paper. With all this, he went home and a week later brought to light the first razor with disposable blades. The struggle for the durability of the blade has been replaced by the struggle for cheapness. King was confident in the success of his enterprise. After all, a skein of tape cost only 16 cents a pound, and according to his calculations, 500 blades should have been obtained from a pound.
"Without a technical education, I had no idea that I needed a special quality steel, much more expensive than the one with which I began my experiments." But King literally went crazy with his idea, making more and more new modifications of the razor. Over the next 8 years of experiments, in a grueling struggle for the cheapness of the blade, he spent more than $ 25 thousand. He hardly saw anyone and spent all day sitting in the laboratory or over the drawings. We needed thin, strong and at the same time cheap steel. The specialists to whom he turned advised to abandon the meaningless search. Tempering a steel strip of this thickness is like trying to sew a dress out of thread. If Gillette had received the appropriate technical education, he would have given up a long time ago and gave up.
But he didn't back down. Things got off the ground in 1900, when William Nickerson, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, took up the technical embodiment of Gillette's idea. Nickerson developed a technology for strengthening and sharpening steel tape. A few more months of work - and the solution is found. Gillette finished designing the final model. When he finally crawled out of his self-imposed confinement, his friends ridiculed him:
You, my friend, are completely wild. Have you ever seen yourself in the mirror? He invented the razor, and he himself is overgrown, as if you live in the forest.
He was not offended, but took note. He had already thought about it. The trouble was that, as a sin, beards began to come into fashion again. The representatives of the royal families of Europe were the first to wear a beard, and then the wave came to America. It will not be possible to break the fashion, but a compromise is possible. Mustache - why not a compromise? This is how the very famous Gillette mustache appeared, which became the trademark of the company. But neither the owner of the mustache himself nor those to whom he tried to offer his invention believed in their magical power. Friends joked, but investors and engineers remained indifferent and did not blow their heads.
Yet in 1901, Gillette managed to convince a few friends to invest small amounts in the business as initial capital. Having collected $5 thousand, he received a patent for his invention and opened a company. The first disposable razors hit the market in 1903. This year we managed to sell 51 razors and 168 blades. In the next - 91 thousand razors and 123 thousand blades. By 1908, sales exceeded $13 million. During the First World War, the beard fashion naturally died out, and the demand for razors skyrocketed. Gillette's finest hour has arrived. Wartime and field conditions demanded a simplified way of life. Disposable razors were very handy. They solved many problems at once: they were cheap, easy to use, did not require maintenance and, being disposable, guaranteed hygiene. In addition, with them there was no need for a regimental barber. Gillette's razors began to diverge in unprecedented quantities. By 1917, 1 million razors and 120 million blades were being sold annually.
The war is over, but the habit of shaving yourself remains. The famous paradox "Who shaves the barber if he only shaves those who don't shave themselves?" gone down in history. The year 1921 has come. The 20-year term of the original exclusive patent was expiring, which meant that the very next day after its expiration, any company could throw disposable razors on the market and compete with Gillette. "Intelligence" reported that several manufacturers are ready to produce cheap imitations of Gillette razors. The fate of the company hung in the balance. Six months before the patent expired, Gillette designed and released a new model that cost $1 a piece (previous ones cost $5 or more). That year, the company's revenue was record-breaking.
By 1930, Gillette had merged with its main competitor. Until the beginning of the Second World War, it continued to expand. The razor came into fashion, in which the blade was inserted into a one-piece plastic case. After use, it was thrown away all, and not just the blade. In addition, the company began to produce shaving accessories and shaving creams. In 1947, after the death of the inventor (he died in 1932), the disposable razor experienced a rebirth. The usual oil-paper-wrapped individual blades have been replaced by safety cassettes with built-in blades. Then, in 1957, Gillette's first moving head razor appeared. The latest model of Gillette's three-blade razor, called the Mach, has appeared many times in commercials on Russian TV screens. And we, like all progressive humanity, have joined the civilized one-time channel, contributing to billions of sales of razors, 40 billions of sales of blades, to the work of thousands of factories not only in America, but also in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Mexico , England, France, Germany and Switzerland. Now in our homes there are packages with the famous mustache of the inventor of disposable razors, King Gillette. The 77-year-old founder of disposability and the seller of momentary shortly before his death modestly remarked: "Of all the great inventions, the disposable razor is the greatest of the little things."
Gillette could die in peace. After all, he left one of the largest fortunes in America as a legacy to his family.
Vest, no better razor
Valery 14.02.2018 04:00:43
Great article about a great man. King Camp Gillette, the inventor of the safety razor, not only made life easier for men who shave every morning, but women also use his invention. I remember very well how my dad shaved with a dangerous razor, it was a whole ritual, starting from straightening the razor, steaming it with a hot towel soaked in hot water, a shaving brush and soap shavings, alum .. I tried to shave with my father's Zolinger razor, which he brought from Berlin and took care of her like the apple of an eye, but nothing worked out for me.
I started shaving with domestic razors, Neva, Baltika, Sputnik blades, but how can they be compared with today's, even the cheapest choppers. A shaving gel or foam, it's a dream. Low bow and eternal memory to King Camp Gillette!