US2342161A - Safety razor - Google Patents

Description

J. MUROS ETAL l SAFETY RAZOR Feb; 22, 1944.

Filed May 15,r 1943 Patented Feb. 22, 1944 SAFETY RAZOR Joseph Muros, Cambridge, and Nicholas Testi, Boston, Mass., .assgnors to Gillette Safety Razor Company, Boston, Mass., a corporation of Delaware application May 1a, 194s, serial No. 485,324

tcl. sii-7o) l 6 Claims.

This invention consists in improvements in safety razors facilitating the present-ation to the razor of fresh sharp blades while protected by a wrapper or envelope which it is desired to re-vr move only after the blade has been positively and completely located in its shaving position.

The shaving edge of a thin safetyrazor blade t is brought to such 'a high degree of ineness that it is extremely delicate and its keenness is likely to be destroyed if the edge is accidentally drawn across any part of the razor or the blade magazine or even the blade wrapper preparatory to shaving. Great care and considerable skill is required ordinarily on the part of the user to extract such a blade from its wrapper and present it safely in its shaving position without damage to its edge. The present invention deals with blades of a type which may be protected at the time of manufacture by being enclosed in a paper wrapper. This wrapper overlaps and safeguards the sharp edge or edges of the razor blade and must be removed to make the edge accessible for shaving. We contemplate a safetyrazor so organized that the wrapped blade may be delivered directly thereto in its nal shaving positionv and temporarily held as thus positioned while the user has only to strip the wrapper from the blade and withdraw it from-the razor, all this being effected without danger and even without the possibility of touching the keen cutting edge of the blade.

To this end an important feature of the improved safety razor consists in a detent or retainer normally blocking the blade passage between the connected blade-clamping members and arranged to be moved by the user to clear the passage and to be held in inoperative position while a blade is being presented to or removed from the razor and to automatically interlock with and hold the blade against longitudinal movement when released and while the bladeclamping members are still separated. The blade is thus positively held in its shaving position and the wrapper or envelope may be stripped from the blade while so held without any danger whatever of Contact with the sharp edge or edges of the blade. The detent is arranged thus to engage and hold the blade while the blade-clamping members are spaced from each other and it in no way interferes with the subsequent bladeclamping Step.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of 'a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a view of the razor head in longitudinal ysection and on an enlarged scale showing the detent in operative position;

Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the detent in inoperative position;

Fig. 3 is a view of the razor head in end elevation;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the guard member showing a protected blade in process of presentation; Fig. 5 is a similar view showing the blade in its shaving position and the razor cap partiallyr broken away;

Fig. 6 is a view of the razor head in end elevation, showing the blade as clamped in shaving position; and

Fig. 7 is a view in side elevation partly in section showing a modied construction.

The invention is not limited to safety razors of any specific type, and while it is herein shown as embodied in a razor of the"Gillette type, with suitable modification it is capable of general application. The illustrated razor comprises a handle including a hollow barrel I rigidly secured to a tubular head II which is permanently but rotatably connected to the guard member I2. This is generally rectangular` in outline and slotted atwits opposite side to define outwardly and downwardly curved guard bars I3. The body of the guard is formed with an inner flat surface bounded by parallel fulcrum shoulders I4 over `which the blade is flexed in use. It has also a central'longitudinal slot I5 which is interrupted by a circular hub portion surrounding the anged upper end of the head I I.

The guard I2 is apertured near one end to receive a blade-retaining detent having a lower cylindrical portion I6, a constricted neck Il and a cylindrical head I8. The detent is carried by a leaf spring I9 riveted to thebottom of the guard and yoke-shaped so as to clear the head I I of the handle'as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 4. In its normal position the spring supports the detent with its enlarged head I3 projecting above the horizontal blade-supporting surface of the guard in position to block the presentation of a blade to the razor by endwise movement upon this surface. The detent may be pressed inwardly so that the constricted neck I1 will be located in the position initially occupied by the head I8 as suggested in Fig. 2, this being done by the user when he desires to present or remove a blade.

The cap member 2D corresponds in contour with the guard and has an inner concave surface arranged to co-Voperate with vthe fulcrum shoulders I4 of theV guard in `:imparting a'transverse curvature to the blade when the latter is clamped in shaving position. The cap is provided with a longitudinal rib 2l which fits with clearance into the slot I5 of the guard and is interrupted so that it clears the 'central hub portion of the guard and the upper end of the head II. It is also recessed near its right-hand end, as shown in Fig. 1, to provide an open space for the reception of the detent I6-`-I8. The cap is also provided with a centrally disposed shank 22 which is flattened at its upper end, as shown in Fig. 4, and received within the bore of the head Il. At its lower end the shank is threaded for connection with an internally threaded Yportion of the head II and provided at its lower end with a limit screw 23 arranged to co-operate with the lower end of the head II to limit the amount by which the cap and guard may be separated. The amountof separation is indicated in Fig. 3 from which it will be seen that in separated condition a blade passage is provided between the cap and guardin which a blade or a wrapped blade may be presented endwise in fiat condition between these two members. On the other hand, when the handle 4is rotated the cap is drawn down forcibly by its threaded connection with the head I I into clamping relation with the guard.

. The blade herein shownas adapted for use with the razor above described is a double-edged blade notched at each corner to define elongated unsharpened end portions and is provided with a central longitudinal slot opening through its left-hand end. The slot includes spaced diamond-shaped perforations or apertures 21 and has a central circular aperture 28 which affords clearance for the shank 22 of the cap when the blade has been moved fully into its shaving position. AS herein shown the blade is enclosed in a paper wrapper 26 which is foldedy so as to protect both its cuttingedges and to extend in double thickness substantially beyond the right-hand end of the blade. The wrapper is folded over the shoulders at one end of the blade so that its edges do not cover the slot or apertures of the blade but leave them fully exposed. Blades thus protected may be dispensed in book packages suchv as that disclosed in U. S. Letters Patent No. 2,194,281, Gustafson.

Preparatory to the shaving operation a wrapped blade 25 is pushed endwise between the cap and guard members of the safety razor While the latter are separated as shown in Fig. 2 and while the detent IIS-I8 is held in its inner or inoperative position by the user. The slotted blade moves forwardly smoothly on both sides of the rib 2| of the cap while resting upon the flat supporting face of the guard I2. The blade slot not only aiords clearance for the blade-locating rib 2l but also for the constricted neck I1 of the detent and the fiat end shank 22 of the cap. The blade encounters no obstruction until it fully arrives in its shaving position at which time the solid inner end of the blade slot encounters the right-hand end of the blade-locating rib 2I. When this occurs the diamond-shaped aperture 21 of the blade is located in registration with the head I8 of the retaining device. Accordingly, when the retaining device is released by the user the spring is free to move the latter to position its head I8 in the aperture 21 as suggested in Figs. 3 and 5, thus positively interlocking the blade and detent and holding the wrapped blade positively in its shaving position. While the blade is thus held the user is free to remove the wrapper 26 by merely pulling forcibly toward the right. It is thus stripped from the blade While the latter remains positively and accurately positioned by its engagement with the locating rib 2l and the head I8 of the detent. The handle is now rotated to draw the cap 20 into blade-clamping position as shown in Fig. 6 and in this operation the detent occupies its initial position in interlocking engagement with the blade.

At the conclusion of the shaving operation the handle is rotated reversely and the cap separated from the guard as far as is permitted by the limit screw 23. The blade, of course, is positively held during all this time by the detent. In order to remove the blade the user now presses the detent inwardly as suggested in Fig. 2 again bringing the constricted neck I1 into line with the blade slot whereupon the blade is free to be withdrawn toward the right or to slip out of the razor by its own weight if the razor is held on end.

The construction shown in Fig. 7 is similar to that already ldescribed except the detent 35 is mounted in the cap :3Q instead of the guard 31. The cap 30 is provided with a blade-locating rib 3| at one side of its stem and with a recess 32 at the other side of its stem. A leaf spring 33 is mounted in the cap and carries a blade-retaining detent having a cylindrical head 35 disposed next to the spring 33 and a long at downwardly projecting shank 36. The guard 31 is provided with an aperture 38 affording free movement of the detent. Initially the detent occupies the dotted line position shown in Fig. 1 in which its cylindrical head 35 is maintained in blade obstructing or blade-retaining position. The detent may be moved by the user into blade-receiving position by pressure applied to the end of the shank 3B bending the spring 33 inwardly and carrying the head 35 of the detent upwardly and out of the blade passage.

Having thus disclosed our invention and described in detail certain illustrative embodiments thereof we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent: l

l. A safety razor having co-operating bladeclamping members, blade-locating means, and spring mechanism normally obstructing the presentation of a blade endwise between said clamping members, said mechanism being movable by the user to a non-obstructive position and thereafter movable of itself into interlocking engagement with a blade located in the razor in shaving position.

2. A safety razor having co-operating members movable relatively to lclamp or release a slotted blade introduced between them, blade-locating means, and a blade-retaining device having a neck of reduced dimensions and being movable from a blade-blocking position to a position in which its neck registers with the blade slot.

3. A safety razor having cap and guard members connected for limited separation to provide a blade passage between them, and a spring detent mounted in one member, standing normally 1n said passage opposite to a recess in the other member and movable inwardly by the user into said recess to clear the blade passage.

4. A safety razor comprising cap and guard members connected for limited separation to provide a blade passage between them, the cap having a recess, and a detent mounted in the guard and having a constricted neck normally maintained out of said blade passage and being constructed and arranged Afor movement into said recess whereby its neck may be located in line with the blade passage.

5. A safety razor comprising cap andguard members connected for limited separation to admit a blade endwise between them and movableV into blade-clamping engagement, a blade-locating rib between them, a blade retaining detent movable transversely of said blade passage and having enlarged heads separated by a constricted neck, a spring for normally holding saiddetent With one of said heads in the blade passage, and a Wrapped blade having an open-ended slot of Width to receive the constricted neck of the detent and an aperture shaped tov receive one of its heads.

automatically interlock with and hold the blade against longitudinal movement when released.

JOSEPH MUROS. NICHOLAS TESTI.

Images