King C. Gillette

King Camp Gillette was born January 5, 1855, an American businessman who saw past the heavy straight razors that required constant stropping and specialist hands. His breakthrough was stamped steel: a blade thin enough to toss after it dulled, cheap enough to replace without thinking twice. He founded the Gillette razor company on that insight, and the safety razor became a bestseller. The razor-and-blades model that defined his company's fortune was lifted from competitors, not pioneered by him — but the disposable blade itself was his alone. He died July 9, 1932, having changed the morning r…