Magazine Repeating Razor Company - Early Schick Razors - Now Warner-Lambert / Pfizer

Beautifully engraved SPECIMEN certificate from the Magazine Repeating Razor Company. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company in 1929 and has an ornate border around it.

Schick razors and electric shavers trace their origins to the inventive U. S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Schick. He retired from the military in 1910 but then returned to service at the start of World War I. During his respite from the army, Colonel Schick staked mining claims in Alaska and British Columbia. It was during one of these cold winters that he first conceived the idea for a dry shaver and sketched out a design that could shave without water or lather. After the war he attempted to generate interest in his design but had no luck and began to work on other inventions.

In 1921, Colonel Schick invented a new type of safety razor - the Magazine Repeating Razor. Inspired by the army repeating rifle, it had replacement blades stored in in a clip in the handle ready to be fed into shaving position by pivoting the head and stroking a built in lever, without the chore and danger of handling a sharp blade. Production of this innovative razor started in Jersey City in 1926. The Magazine Repeating Razor was placed on the market in 1926. Although this product was doing well in the marketplace, Schick was devoted to his dry shaver concept.

In 1927, his electric was perfected to the point of being a marketable product. He was so sure of its success that he sold the assets of his razor company to the American Chain & Cable Company in 1928 for capitalization. In 1929, the dry shaver went on the market, and in 1930 the firm was incorporated as Schick Dry Shaver, Inc. Thus, the razor company and the electric shaver company became two separate corporate entities.

These magazine repeating razors were produced in three models between 1926 and about 1935, and were the forerunners to the famous Schick Injector Razor, still made today.

In 1946, Eversharp, Inc. acquired the Magazine Repeating Razor Company and renamed it the Schick Safety Razor Company. American Chain and Cable produced the product for Schick until 1958, when Schick set up its own manufacturing operations in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 1961, Schick moved its manufacturing facilities into its present home in Milford, Connecticut.

The Schick Safety Razor Company was acquired by Warner-Lambert in 1970. They continue to produce innovative high quality shaving products, and modern versions of the original injector razor, under the Schick banner. The Warner-Lambert company is today a division of Pfizer.