King Camp Gillette Biography

King Camp Gillette was an American salesman and inventor who introduced the disposable safety razor in the first years of the 20th century.

Raised in the Chicago area, he spent his early career as a traveling salesman who sold bottle stoppers.

In the late 1890s he was inspired to create a disposable shaving razor, partly out of personal interest (or frustration) and partly out of a desire to create a product consumers could dispose of before buying another one.

He teamed with a machinist-inventor named William Nickerson, and in 1901 Gillette formed American Safety Razor, which was soon changed to Gillette Safety Razor.In 1903 Gillette sold 51 razors and 14 dozen (168) blades.

Awarded a patent in 1904, Gillette’s business was so successful he effectively retired in 1910, while keeping a figurehead position with the Gillette company.

After leaving the business world, Gillette turned his attention to planting the seeds for a socialist utopia, writing books and spending money to advocate a “world corporation” that would supersede an international system based on national borders.