King Camp Gillette

1630
Gillet Family
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  • The ancestors of the Gillette family were Hugonots and fled from France to Somerset, England
  • Part of the family arrived in Massachusetts, USA in 1630 on the ship Mary and Jones
1855
05.01.
King Camp Gillette is born
Gillette is born
  • King Camp Gillette was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on January 05, 1855
  • Mother Fanny Lemira Camp
  • Father George Gillette
  • Judge King was a friend of George Gillette and is the namesake of the first name "King"
1860
Chicago and New York
Moving
  • The family moves to Chicago
  • In October 1871, the family loses everything in the great fire
  • The family moves to New York
1872
First jobs
first job
  • At the age of 17, Gillette takes his first job as a clerk in Chicago
  • At the age of 21 he works in New York as a salesman
  • Gillette has always been an inventor on the side
  • He applies for various patents for hardware and machines and even founds his first company
  • His inventions only ever made money for others but not for him
  • He is sent to England as a salesman and sells household goods
1887
White house cookbook
first job
  • Mother publishes a cookbook with lots of recipes
1889
Marriage
Marriage
  • Gillette returns to the USA and marries Atalanta Ella Gaines
New job
crowncorks
  • In 1891, Gillette took a job with the Baltimore Seal Company. The owner, William Painter, is the inventor of the crown cap
  • He told Gillette "you have to invent something that is used every day and thrown away"
1891
March 30
Idea of the disposable blade
idea
  • On a business trip to a hotel in Pensilvenia, Gillette came up with the idea of the disposable blade
  • he shouts "I've got it, our fortune is made" in the bathroom on a rainy day
March 30
Human Drift book
human drift
  • Gillette publishes its first book "Human Drift" in 1894
March 30
Forced brake
forced brake
  • Due to a tonsil operation on his daughter King Gaines Gillette, also called "Kingie" or "Babe" by him, he unexpectedly has time to improve the design of the blade and the razor
  • He realizes that hardly anyone sees his invention as a great achievement