The recent reawakening of one of our old threads on the Zinn Automatic reminded me of something that's been bugging me for a little while. The common wisdom here and elsewhere seems to be that Gem Cutlery began making the Zinn Automatic in 1898, when Jeremiah Reichard joined up with the Zinns, but before the inclusion of August Scheuber. [Example reference here.]
However, this chronology has never quite made sense to me. For one thing, Scheuber was involved with the Zinns before Reichard, designing pieces for Simon Zinn's metal goods business like this purse clasp patented in 1890 (US436268) or this pocketbook frame patented in 1891 (US466262). But that's a minor niggle, really.
My main problem is the notion that the Zinn Automatic predated Gem's other lather catchers. I can find nothing at all that supports that 1898 date. The only remotely germane patent filing I can find from 1898 is this one of Reichard's that was for the initial Gem design (US616806). There is a subsequent filing from 1899 by Scheuber (US657010) for the modified design with the thumb tab instead of the spring at the back of the blade, but that's also clearly nothing like the Zinn Automatic.
The earliest I can find of anything in the patent record that looks like the Automatic is US881033 for the razor frame, filed on Jan 14, 1905 and issued on Mar 3, 1908; and US960424 for the blades, which was originally filed as part of that same Jan 14, 1905 filing but was then split out and refiled separately on May 23, 1905, and not issued until Jun 7, 1910. Both were filed by Walter J. Smart and assigned to the Zinns, with no apparent involvement from either Reichard or Scheuber.
Here are the drawing pages of both patents:
As you can see, there was a relatively long period of time between the filing of those patents and their issuing. This would match up with the fact that all of the Zinn Automatics that I've ever seen (possibly all of the ones ever made?) carried the "Pat. Appl'd For" stamp rather than a patent date or number.
One other point worth noticing is that the drawing of the razor in the re-filed blade patent looks much more like the Automatic as it was actually produced than the drawing from the earlier razor frame patent. That earlier drawing shows what would appear to be a bottom piece to the clip that holds the blade, almost like the idea that they were working from was a trapped, spring-loaded holder for the blade that effectively turned the disposable blade into the edge of a wedge-shaped assembly within the razor frame. It's possible that they were showing an over-complicated patent drawing to prevent easy duplication or to cover a wider range of claimed features. But it's perhaps more likely that they were still refining the design for production during those months in the first half of 1905.
Digging through the advertising record, I'm also not able to find any mention of the Automatic until 1905, like this three-page spread from the August 25, 1905 issue of Hardware, which appears to be pretty clearly announcing it to retailers as a new product.
So, basically, I'm stumped as to where that 1898 date came from. It seems much more likely to me that they didn't start making the Automatic until 1905 when Reichard and Scheuber had already gone off to make the Yankee/Ever-Ready. Am I missing something obvious here?
However, this chronology has never quite made sense to me. For one thing, Scheuber was involved with the Zinns before Reichard, designing pieces for Simon Zinn's metal goods business like this purse clasp patented in 1890 (US436268) or this pocketbook frame patented in 1891 (US466262). But that's a minor niggle, really.
My main problem is the notion that the Zinn Automatic predated Gem's other lather catchers. I can find nothing at all that supports that 1898 date. The only remotely germane patent filing I can find from 1898 is this one of Reichard's that was for the initial Gem design (US616806). There is a subsequent filing from 1899 by Scheuber (US657010) for the modified design with the thumb tab instead of the spring at the back of the blade, but that's also clearly nothing like the Zinn Automatic.
The earliest I can find of anything in the patent record that looks like the Automatic is US881033 for the razor frame, filed on Jan 14, 1905 and issued on Mar 3, 1908; and US960424 for the blades, which was originally filed as part of that same Jan 14, 1905 filing but was then split out and refiled separately on May 23, 1905, and not issued until Jun 7, 1910. Both were filed by Walter J. Smart and assigned to the Zinns, with no apparent involvement from either Reichard or Scheuber.
Here are the drawing pages of both patents:
As you can see, there was a relatively long period of time between the filing of those patents and their issuing. This would match up with the fact that all of the Zinn Automatics that I've ever seen (possibly all of the ones ever made?) carried the "Pat. Appl'd For" stamp rather than a patent date or number.
One other point worth noticing is that the drawing of the razor in the re-filed blade patent looks much more like the Automatic as it was actually produced than the drawing from the earlier razor frame patent. That earlier drawing shows what would appear to be a bottom piece to the clip that holds the blade, almost like the idea that they were working from was a trapped, spring-loaded holder for the blade that effectively turned the disposable blade into the edge of a wedge-shaped assembly within the razor frame. It's possible that they were showing an over-complicated patent drawing to prevent easy duplication or to cover a wider range of claimed features. But it's perhaps more likely that they were still refining the design for production during those months in the first half of 1905.
Digging through the advertising record, I'm also not able to find any mention of the Automatic until 1905, like this three-page spread from the August 25, 1905 issue of Hardware, which appears to be pretty clearly announcing it to retailers as a new product.
So, basically, I'm stumped as to where that 1898 date came from. It seems much more likely to me that they didn't start making the Automatic until 1905 when Reichard and Scheuber had already gone off to make the Yankee/Ever-Ready. Am I missing something obvious here?
