King C. Gillette

King C. Gillette

King Camp Gillette (January 5, 1855 – July 9, 1932) was an American businessman, popularly, but incorrectly, known as the inventor of the safety razor. (The Encyclopædia Britannica, among others, has falsely so credited him.) While Gillette did improve the design of the safety razor (patent US775134), his true invention was an inexpensive, high profit-margin stamped steel disposable blade and a unique business model. This beat out competitors and became the most popular razor of its time.

Biography

Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and raised in Chicago, Illinois, King Camp Gillette's family was devastated by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

While working as a traveling salesman for the Crown Cork and Seal Company (the first major disposable product) to support his family in the 1890s, Gillette hit upon an idea. Earlier razor blades needed continuous sharpening, becoming worn out quickly and making them expensive. He realized that a profit could be made by selling a safety razor at a reduced price and then making a profit margin on the inexpensive disposable blades. He developed a blade made out of very thin sheet-steel. Once the blade became dull, it was discarded and replaced by a new one, using the same holder. This has been called the Razor and blades business model, and is an example of a "loss leader".

Safety razors had first been developed in the mid-1800s, but still used a forged blade. In the 1870s, the Kampfe Brothers introduced a type of razor ([1]) along these lines. Gillette improved these earlier designs of the safety razor and also introduced his true innovation of inexpensive, high profit-margin stamped steel blades (along with his unique business model). Gillette's razor retailed for a substantial $5 (almost $134 in 2006 dollars) â€" half the average workingman's weekly pay â€" yet it sold by the millions.

The most difficult part of the development was making the blades, as cheap thin steel was very difficult to work with and very difficult to sharpen. This accounts for the long delay between the initial idea and the first production.

In order to apply his idea, Gillette founded the American Safety Razor Company on September 28 1901. The company's name was changed in July 1902 to Gillette Safety Razor Company. Gillette obtained a trademark registration (0056921) for his portrait and signature on the packaging. Production began in 1903 when he sold a total of 51 razors and 168 blades. The following year, 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades were sold, thanks in part to Gillette's low prices, automated manufacturing techniques, and good advertising. By 1908 the corporation had established manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, England, France and Germany. Razor sales reached 450,000 units and blade sales exceeded 70 million units in 1915. In 1918, when the U.S. entered World War I, the company provided all American soldiers with a field razor set, paid for by the government.

Gillette was also a Utopian Socialist, publishing a book The Human Drift in 1894 advocating that all industry should be taken over by a single corporation owned by the public, and that everyone in the US should live in a giant city called Metropolis powered by Niagara Falls. A later book, World Corporation (1910), was a prospectus for a company set up to create this vision. He offered Theodore Roosevelt the presidency of the company. His last book, The People's Corporation was written with Upton Sinclair and later inspired Glen H. Taylor.

In his later life he travelled extensively, and was universally recognised from his picture on the packets of razor blades. People were surprised that he was a real person rather than just a marketing image.
Gillette died in Los Angeles, California, and is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. He was almost bankrupt at the time of his death, due both to his having spent large amounts of money on property, and to his having lost much of the value of his corporate shares as a result of the Great Depression.

The Gillette Company continued to thrive and sells products under a variety of brand names including Gillette, Braun, Oral-B, and Duracell until 2005, when the company was sold to Procter & Gamble for $57 billion.

See also

* Main : Razor, The Gillette Company, List of corporate leaders
* Timeline of invention : Razor and blades business model, 1855 in science
* Other : Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery

External links and references

Information
* Mid-1870s safety razor
* Patent for Safety Razor Issued November 15, 1904. Gillette's invention initiated line of world-famous grooming products
* Inventor of the Disposable Culture King Camp Gillette 1855-1932. Tim Dowling. ISBN 057120810X

Patents
* "US775134". USPTO. (15 November 1904)

Images
* King Gillette via Google.
* Kampfe Brothers razors (complete with patent dates)