SHAVING ACRES OF FACE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 130, 26 February 1937, Page 16

SHAVING ACRES OF FACE

Britain’s Whisker Crop On a cold morning in 1895 King C. Gillette, an American salesman, aged 40, found that - his razor needed stropping and honing. He thought: “Why not a cheap razor blade which one could throw away when it got blunt? Why not a safety razor?” He telegraphed home to his wife: ‘‘,l have got it; our toriunc is made.” With little encouragement King Gillette went ahead with his idea, and in 1901 his organisation was founded with a nominal capital of £l.OOO. In 1903 the first products were put on the market--51 razorsand 14 dozen blades. In 1905 the first oversea branch of the company was opened in London, together with a factory at Leicester. In 1932, when King Gillette died, the capital of the company was £40,000,000. Recently the Lord Mayor of London, using a golden key, opened Hie new factory and offices on the Great West Hoad, Islewortb. The new premises stand on five and three-quarter acres of ground and themselves cover an area of two and one-quarter acres. A feature of the buildings is the tower over the main entrance, which rises to a height of 150 ft. above ground level ami is surmounted by a four-faced clock, each face having a diameter of 12ft. The output capacity is 1,500,000 blades and 25.000 razors a day, and th employees in office and factory number 900. At a luncheon given after the opening ceremony Mr. E. 11. Cooper, chairman and managing director of Gillette Industries, Limited, said that at present the company produced 1,000,000 blades a day, or 50 ,miles of blade edge. Of this, one half was exported—one of their best markets was Japan—and the other half was sold in Britain.

Discussing the work done by the 25 miles of blade edge each day in Britain, be said that they were told that when a man shaved he shaved an average area of about 48 square inches on his face. On this area grew 25,000 hairs, each of which increased in length in each 24 hours at least ouc one hundredth of an inch. So that each man grew at least 250 inches of hair on his face each day. Multiplying this figure by 15,000,000, the number of shavers in the British Isles, it was found that the daily growth of hair iu the Brtilsh Isles was 50,000 miles over an area of about 125 acres. That was the crop which was garnered each day. (Laughter).

Subsequently the Lord Mayor pressed a button which set in motion 10 machines which take in strip steel at one end and at the other turn out blades al the rate of 300 a minute.