1. Project
2. MblakeleTestTimeline

Please cite sources wherever possible, preferring primary sources to secondary or tertiary ones.

• [*] September
  • [*] 28: Incorporation as "American Safety Razor Company" with King Camp Gillette as company president. The initial 50,000 shares represent $500,000. K.C. Gillette receives 17,500 shares. First offices are above a fish shop at 424 Atlantic Ave, Boston.[1]

• 
  [*]Company is close to bankruptcy when John J. Joyce invests $60,000. [2]
  

• [*] November
  • [*]First advertising appears.[3]
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  [*] December
  • [*] 31: Annual sales: 51 razor sets and 168 blade packs.

• 
  [*]In the Fall, purchase of factory building at 303 West First St (South), Boston.[4]
  

• [*] January
  • [*] 26: Sometime prior to this date, Gillette took the upper floor of the building at 394 Atlantic Ave, Boston.[5]
    [*] 27: King Camp Gillette leaves the USA for England, returning to Crown Cork as London sales manager. He resigned as company president, but remained on the board.[6]
    
  [*] July
  • [*]King Camp Gillette returns from England to stop the sale of foreign patent rights, arriving in Boston ten days later. He rejoins the company as vice-president, with salary, and sells 4000 of his personal 9000 shares to former colleagues at Crown Cork for $80,000, leaving him with 5000 of the then-total 65,000 shares. He used at most $20,000 of this money to buy another 9000 shares. John J. Joyce also increased his holdings.[7]
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  [*] November
  • [*] 15: First patents granted: 775,134 and 775,135.
    
  [*] December
  • [*] 31: Annual sales exceed 90,000 razors (note that serial numbers did not begin until midway through the year, and Gillette estimates that approximately 55,000 were produced without serial numbers).

• 
  [*]Company offices on Tremont St, Boston.[8]
  
  [*]Probably late in the year, A.A. Bittues establishes Paris plant.[9]
  

• [*] February
  • [*]London office established, but no factory yet.[10]

• 
  [*]"offices were opened in Germany and other countries in Europe, Asia, South Africa, Australia, and South America. Also a factory was established in France to supply the demand there for the Gillette Safety Razor and Blades." The German office was probably in Berlin, and the French office in Paris. The first Montreal factory also opened.[11]
  

• [*] April
  • [*]First Canadian factory established at 34 St Antoine Street, Montreal.[12][13]

• 
  [*]Decision to build first factory in England.[14]
  
  [*]Public directory of companies lists: "GILLETTE SAFETY RAZOR COMPANY, 41 West First Street, South Boston. Incorporated under laws of Maine. Annual meeting in October. Capital stock authorized and issued $650,000. President, John Joyce; Vice President, K.C. Gillette; Treasurer and Clerk, W.B. Holloway; Directors, the above and M.J. Curran (Andover, Mass.), Jacob Heilborn." [15]
  

• [*] January
  • [*] 3: Factory at 34 St Antoine Street, Montreal making "35 razors a day, and 60 or 70 dozens of blades" shortly before it is destroyed by fire.[16]
    [*] 4: Montreal production moved to third floor of 622 St Paul Street. Sometime later the factory moved to the first floor of 63 St Alexander Street.[17][18]

• 
  [*]Public directory of companies lists: "GILLETTE SAFETY RAZOR COMPANY, 41 West First Street, South Boston. Incorporated under laws of Maine. Capital stock authorized and issued $650,000. President, K.C. Gillette; Vice President, John Joyce; Treasurer, W.B. Holloway; Clerk, W.M. Bradley; Directors: above, except Clerk, and T.W. Pelham, C.A. Gaines, W.E. Nickerson, J.G. Rothe." [19]
  

• [*] September
  • [*]UK subsidiary formed, as "Gillette Safety Razor, Ltd" with offices at 17 Holborn Viaduct.[20]
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  [*] October
  • [*]Montreal factory moved to 63 St. Alexander Street "some time previously" and is producing 250-300 dozen blades daily.[22]
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• 
  [*]New factory in Leicester, England in operation early in the year.[23]
  

• [*] June
  • [*]Montreal producing "first real large orders... for the Pocket Edition Sets". Shortage of skilled buffers and platers results in production of plain cases.[24]
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• 
  [*]John J. Joyce buys stock from K.C. Gillette and others, taking firm control of the company until his own retirement in 1916.[25]
  

• 
  [*]Early in the year, Montreal production moves to new fireproof factory at 73 St Alexander Street, costing $300,000 (USD?). Initially the factory occupies only basement and ground floor, leasing out the other four floors.[26][27][28]
  

1. ^McKibben, Gordon. Cutting Edge: Gillette's Journey to Global Leadership, p11.
2. ^McKibben, Gordon. Cutting Edge: Gillette's Journey to Global Leadership, p3.
3. ^System, November 1903, Vol. 4, No. 7, p.359
4. ^Gillette, King Camp. Gillette Blade, March 1918, Vol. I, No. 5, pp8-11.
5. ^Gillette, King Camp. Gillette Blade, March 1918, Vol. I, No. 5, pp8-9.
6. ^Gillette, King Camp. Gillette Blade, March 1918, Vol. I, No. 5, p7.
7. ^Gillette, King Camp. Gillette Blade, March 1918, Vol. I, No. 5, pp7-8.
8. ^Bittues, A.A. Gillette Blade, January 1918, Vol. I, No. 3, p21.
9. ^Bittues, A.A. Gillette Blade, January 1918, Vol. I, No. 3, p21.
10. ^Gillette, King Camp. Gillette Blade, March 1918, Vol. I, No. 5, p12.
11. ^Gillette, King Camp. Gillette Blade, March 1918, Vol. I, No. 5, p12.
12. ^Flanagan, P.T. Gillette Blade Canadian Edition, July 1918, p6.
13. ^Bittues, A.A. Gillette Blade, January 1918, Vol. I, No. 3, p21.
14. ^Gillette, King Camp. Gillette Blade, March 1918, Vol. I, No. 5, p12.
15. ^The Bankers Service Co., The Directory of directors in the city of Boston and vicinity, 3rd Ed., 1907.
16. ^Flanagan, P.T. Gillette Blade Canadian Edition, July 1918, p6. The mention of 1906 in one picture caption appears to be a typo.
17. ^Bittues, A.A. Gillette Blade, January 1918, Vol. I, No. 3, p22.
18. ^Flanagan, P.T. Gillette Blade Canadian Edition, July 1918, p7.
19. ^The Bankers Service Co., The Directory of directors in the city of Boston and vicinity, 4th Ed., 1908.
20. ^Gillette, King Camp. Gillette Blade, March 1918, Vol. I, No. 5, p12.
21. ^Advertisement for "New Process" Gillette blades, dated September 1st 1908. Credit: Achim.
22. ^Peterson, Neil P. Gillette Blade Canadian Edition, July 1918, pp30-31.
23. ^Gillette, King Camp. Gillette Blade, March 1918, Vol. I, No. 5, p12.
24. ^Peterson, Neil P. Gillette Blade Canadian Edition, July 1918, p31.
25. ^McKibben, Gordon. Cutting Edge: Gillette's Journey to Global Leadership, p3.
26. ^Gillette, King Camp. Gillette Blade, March 1918, Vol. I, No. 5, pp12-13.
27. ^Flanagan, P.T. Gillette Blade Canadian Edition, July 1918, p8. The mention of $400,000 may be Canadian dollars or may be the 1918 value of the factory and its equipment.
28. ^Peterson, Neil P. Gillette Blade Canadian Edition, July 1918, p31.