3.1 Razors

The safety razor was an innovation over the straight razor. Safety razor blades are small enough to fit inside a capsule, and the location and type of handle was altered to suit the new orientation of handle to blade. Most contemporary razors are themselves innovations on the safety razor, whether they have two, three, four, or more blades. The method of changing razor blades has evolved with each innovation on the safety razor, but the designs are functionally similar.

The electric razor is a related invention. It still uses blades to shave hair off the face or body, but the blades are hidden beneath a foil or foils. Hairs poke through the foils when the razor is pressed against the skin, and blades moving in various directions cut the hairs. Although electric razors use blades as do mechanical razors, the new design and the added technology qualified the electric razor as an invention that offered something new in the shaving industry when Jacob Schick won the patent for a shaving machine in 1930. Still other innovations in the shaving genre include gender-specific razors, beard trimmers, and, more recently, online clubs such as Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s Shave Club.

(a) The straight razor is still in use, but there are newer innovations that are more popular. (b) The safety razor is an innovation over the straight razor. (c) The electric razor is an innovation related to the safety razor. (credit (a): modification of “barber-beard-razor-shaving” by “jackmac34”/Pixabay, CC0; credit (b): modification of “Safety Razor vs Cartridge Razor” by “Tools of Men”/Creative Commons, CC BY 2.0; credit (c): modification of “Philips 8290 shaver unboxing” by “renaissancechambara”/Creative Commons, CC BY 2.0)

Think about the conceptual difference between innovation and invention. Is the safety razor a pioneering innovation or an incremental one? What makes the electric razor an invention, as we define it here? What makes it stand out as a leap from previous types of razors? Do you think the electric razor is a “sure thing”? Why or why not? Consider the availability of electricity at the time the first electric razors were being made. Why do you think the electric razor made it over the diffusion chasm between early adopters and early majority adopters? Do you think the electric razor was invented iteratively with small changes to the same product in response to customer preferences? Or did it develop in a series of black-box inventions, with each one either diffusing or not?

Your task is to answer the above questions in a well-developed multi-paragraph response. Your submission should be no more than 500 words in total.