STORY OF THE SAFETY RAZOR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18786, 21 May 1923, Page 12

STORY OF THE SAFETY RAZOR

BAD SHAVE THAT FOUNDED A FORTUNE. Many of the world’s greatest fortunes have been founded on things which appeared trivial. There is no better example than the story of the safety-razor. The idea was so simple that at first the inventor, King Camp Gillette, met with nothing but ridicule and discouragement. But he persevered, and in the first seventeen years after his invention had been launched it brought him in thousands of pounds a year. To-day people are buying Gillette razors at the rate of well over two million a year, to say nothing of the seventeen odd million blades which his factories turn out annually. Mr Gillette started his career as a travelling salesman for the Crown Cork Company, the mayers of the little metal caps which we see on so many bottles to-day. He struck up a great friendship with William Painter, the owner of the Crown Cork patent, aj?d it was the latter

who have him the advice which was to start him on the road to fame. A SUDDEN INSPIRATION. "Gillette,” said Painter, “why don’t you think of something like the Crown cork which, when once used, must be thrown away, and the customer must keep coming back for more?” It was in 1895 that Mr Gillette was afflicted one morning with a blunt razor, which made shaving a torture. In a flash the idea of the Gillette sajety-razor came into his mind. Without a moment’s delay he rushed out, bought some pieces of brass and steel, and with his own hands made the first “Gillette.” Then a stern struggle began. Nobody would listen (o him. He carried his plans round for six years, never losing hope or admitting defeat. Eventually, with two other men, he formed a company, with a nominal capital of £lOO,OOO. Actually, after a terrific fight, they managed to find a thousand pounds in cash.