Wet or dry? The electric shaver turns 90

It is a question of faith that has the potential to divide the world of men: wet or dry? While some swear by the brisk electric razor, others don’t want to do without the smoothly polished end result of the wet shave.

It is thanks to Jacob Schick (1877–1937) that this question arises at all. The gold digger and soldier invented the electric razor and put it on sale for the first time in New York on March 18, 1931. The reason for the invention was – at least according to legend – quite banal: The former soldier was living as a gold digger in Alaska in the 1910s when he sprained his ankle on an expedition. Chopping a hole by the frozen lake every day to get the water to shave was too much of a hassle for him. Therefore, the resourceful gold digger looked around for alternatives. He designed a razor head by crushing razor blades and attaching them to a plate. This was driven by an external motor. But the first models aroused little interest because they were hardly usable. The shaving head was wired to a motor the size of a grapefruit. The manufacturers refused.

Little luck for the inventor

But Schick did not give up and kept tinkering. He developed a significantly smaller motor that fit into the actual razor, making it easy to use. The rest is history: Schick founded a company and launched his razor in New York City in 1931. The “Schicks” soon found great sales. In 1937 the inventor sold 1.2 million copies in the USA, Canada and England. However, the electric shaver only came to Germany and Austria after the Second World War. The faster Schicks competition grew: Companies like Braun and Remington developed cheaper and more sophisticated devices.

However, Jacob Schick did not bring much luck with his invention. After the entrepreneur invested his fortune in the Bahamas, he evaded the US tax authorities by emigrating to Canada in 1935. There he died in 1937 as a result of a kidney transplant.