King C. Gillette
Inventor of the bestselling safety razor and founder of the Gillette company.
Benjamin Joseph Falk · via Wikipedia: King C. Gillette · Public domain
King Camp Gillette, an American businessman born January 5, 1855, created a popular safety razor and established the company that bore his name.[1] What set his product apart was a blade made from stamped steel that was thin, cheap, and meant to be thrown away after use.[1]
Quick Facts
- Birth name
- King Camp Gillette
- Born
- 5 January 1855
- Birthplace
- Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, U.S.
- Died
- 9 July 1932
- Place of death
- Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Resting place
- Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California
- Known for
- Inventing the double-edged safety razor, co-founding The Gillette Company
- Employer
- Crown Cork & Seal Company; Gillette Safety Razor Company
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Painter advised him to invent something disposable that would make customers return for more.[2] William Emery Nickerson improved the handle and frame and designed machinery to mass-produce the blades.[3] Gillette founded the American Safety Razor Company on September 28, 1901.[4] Fond du Lac, Wisconsin was the birthplace of Gillette on January 5, 1855, and he grew up in Chicago, Illinois.[5]
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was survived by his family.[5] Creating the blades—thin, cheap steel that was hard to work with and sharpen—proved to be the toughest part of the development process.[3] Using drawings provided by Gillette, machinist Steven Porter crafted the first functional disposable razor blade.[3] By 1915, 450,000 razors had been sold and blade sales had gone past 70 million units.[6]
What the cited sources add
The creekstone.net source notes that King Camp Gillette is best known, incorrectly, as the inventor of the safety razor.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "King C. Gillette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "K.C. Gillette Dead", New York Times, July 11, 1932; ; Martin, "The Razor's Edge", The Industry Standard, August 6, 2001; Randal C. Picker, "The Razors-and-Blades Myth(s)", John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper No. 532, University of Chicago Law School full text PDF (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "King C. Gillette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Adams, "King C. Gillette: The Man and His Wonderful Shaving Device", Little, Brown and Company, 1978, p. 16–17, 18–19 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "King C. Gillette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nickerson, William E. "Abrading machine" U.S. patent no. 793,604 (filed: March 19, 1902; issued: June 27, 1905).; Nickerson, William E., "Method of hardening" U.S. patent no. 812,442 (filed: September 26, 1903; issued: February 13, 1906).; Adams (1978) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "King C. Gillette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Spang, "Look Sharp! Feel Sharp! Be Sharp!", Newcomen Society of England, 1951 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "King C. Gillette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rosenberg, "The Great Workshop: Boston's Victorian Age"; "K.C. Gillette Dead", New York Times, July 11, 1932; Adams, "King C. Gillette: The Man and His Wonderful Shaving Device", Little, Brown and Company, 1978, p. 16–17, 18–19 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "King C. Gillette" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Frank N. Magill, Great Events from History II: Business and Commerce Series, volume 1:1897–1923 (1994) pp. 75–79 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "The First Safety Razor", creekstone.net. facts only, no text reused. creekstone.net
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article King C. Gillette (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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