Electric Shaver: evolutionary leap

What about electric shavers?
Really. What about the appliances? And appliances are not left behind simple machines. In 1910, a Willis G. Socci received a patent for a mechanical razor. The design used flywheel, allowing some time to rotate the blades around its axis. But, although design acquired quite a lot of popularity, while electricity here and did not smell.

The first patent for the electric shaver got all the same retired Colonel of the U.S. army Jacob Schick (Jacob Schick).

Jacob Schick
As we remember from the previous part of the review, he invented the classic safety razor with a cassette type "reload" blades, placed in the handle of the machine. Well, Colonel, what can I say? Rifles had seen and invented the shaver with recharging. However, one day while in Alaska, during the period of forced idleness due to a sprained ankle drew the Colonel's attention to the fact that a lonely person is hard enough to cook everything you need for a quality shave. And, considering that outside the window, -40, and even the leg — movement around the room and outside to observe the ritual of heating water, frothing foam and other attributes of a successful shave was given to the Colonel with great difficulty. It is here that he first began to think about a dry shave. And scribbled a simple chertezhik the world's first electric shaver, which did not require shaving no water, no foam. It was between 1910 and 1913.

Chertezhik for many years was forgotten, and in 1921 Jakob Schick successfully patented their "multi-charged" razor and created a company in her production and dissemination of the same name "Magazine Repeating Razor" (Razor — copy shop). However, just five years later, in 1926, happily remembered chertezhik from Alaska and constructed the first electric razor. The idea, born sometime in the period of forced idleness in Alaska so captivated him that a year later, in 1927, the Colonel sold the assets of its highly promising company "Magazine Repeating Razors" another company called "American Chain & Cable" with the aim to obtain funds for the creation and promotion of shavers and in a couple of years, in 1929, the shaver was able to produce and bring to market.

Colonel shaver was a prototype of the type that would later be called "rotary". However, this particular razor full rotary could be called only with some reservations. The blades were vibrating rather. Movable blade made of reciprocating motion under a stationary, hollow out. The hairs fell into the slot, where it was cut by the moving blades. Of course, the entire structure was powered by a small electric motor.

Oddly enough, razor the Colonel did not produce any noisy delight of the audience, and sold quite poorly, at that time, as products of a direct competitor, Willis G. Socci with the frankly retarded drive disperse on "Hurrah".

Maybe the problem was likely that the Colonel razor Chic vibrating blade does not cut all the hair, and sometimes tore them by the roots, the blades went dull quickly.

Was released by Schick Dry Shaver, Inc. and products for women. It is believed that she is the prototype of all modern epilators
Colonel as a military man did not understand the intricacies of the market, began to rail at fate but simply merged with the competitor, successfully distributes its products backward. So in 1930, was born the company " Schick Dry Shaver, Inc.". By the way, the patent for his razor Colonel was only in 1931, after all the tribulations associated with the development and distribution of original razor and the subsequent merger with the company Shocki. The merger had beneficial effect on business of Colonel, in all likelihood, after studying all the advantages and disadvantages of both mechanisms, the Colonel had made and had made improvements in his razor, and sales began to increase. Given the entrepreneurial spirit and undoubted talent engineering company the Colonel was expecting a very interesting and profitable future. However, in 1937 the founder of shavers Colonel Schick tragically dies during surgery on the kidney. It leaves an inconsolable widow and two children. What a tragedy for the family and world progress!

Today vintage electric shaver Schick — the brightest representatives of the history of shaving. So there is nothing surprising in the fact that the cost of some models is hundreds and even thousands of dollars
The value of the invention of Colonel Chic and advance of this invention in the field of development of the market of electric shavers, it is difficult to overestimate. By the mid-30s sold more than half a million electric shavers, but this device became interested in the then giants of the electrical industry.