But i think those productio problems were fixed in mid April when Joyce added that extra 8,500 dollars to improve the machines. Nickerson did have problems but they were handled in time for mass production.The boys in Chicago agreed to take X number of razors, but that does not mean they received any. Given the production problems Nickerson describes, likely those 50 razors on 1 January 1904 were the very first razors shipped to Chicago for commercial sale. We hear of a total of 51 sets sold in 1903: probably sloppy accounting for those 50.
By the way I reformatted the "75 Years" book as a single PDF. It is quite large, but much easier to navigate: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t54th1s3mzuq8af/Gillette75Years-1977.pdf.