To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, Andrew Partridge and Dennis F. Sweeney, citizens of the United States, residing at Springfield, county of Hampden, and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Shaving Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements upon the device for which patent was granted September 22, 1885, and numbered 326,885; and it consists in the combination and construction, as hereinafter described, and more particularly pointed out in the claim.

This invention is clearly illustrated in the drawings, in which Figure I is a plan view of an apparatus embodying our improvements. Fig. II is a vertical section of the same upon the line x x of Fig. I; and Figs. III, IV, and V are respectively front, rear, and side views of a portion of the same.

The shaving apparatus illustrated in Figs. I and II is identical with the patented device above cited, except in the feature of the “guard” for the blade, the novel and improved construction of which is more particularly the subject of the present application.

In the drawings, B B are cheek-pieces connected by a spring-loop, D, which also forms a handle for the device. F is the blade, having its ends received in corresponding sockets in the inner faces of the pieces B B. G is a clamp-screw, by which the pieces B B are drawn to clamp the blade F, and by means of which the spring-actuated cheek-pieces can be released to release said blade, and H is a guard clamped, as shown, between the pieces B B, provided with a surface close to the cutting-edge of the blade F, adapted to permit the beard to be cut, while the skin is protected, and having a surface inclined backward from the blade-edge, and provided with interstices to permit the hair and lather to pass therethrough.

Heretofore guards have been made in the form of plates having an extended surface back of the blade, and provided with interstices to permit the lather and hair to clear the cutting-edge, while serving to retain said lather and hair; but said interstices have been in the form of elongated openings separated by bars having their length at right angles to the edge of the blade; and we have found in practice that while hair removed by the blade will follow upon and adhere to the unbroken surface of the bars, so as to often require the blade to be removed to permit them to be cleared, the lather will, on the other hand, too easily fall from the rear of the guard-plate upon the person, and so require the rear of the guard-plate to be cleaned before one-half of the face can be shaved.

We have found that by providing a plate, H, with perforations h, disposed as shown, to have those in one row parallel to the blade-edge come opposite to the spaces between the perforations in the succeeding row, and so as to have little space in the plate between the perforations h, nearly all of the removed hair comes to the outside of the plate H before reaching its top edge; also, that the sides and edges of the perforations h act in a capillary manner to retain all of the lather, so that without fear of its falling the apparatus can be used much longer without cleaning than with any of the guards in common use.

Now, having described our invention, what we claim is—

The within-described improved guard for shaving apparatus, consisting of a plate, H, provided with perforations h, arranged in series, as shown, with those in one row parallel to the edge of the blade coming opposite the intervals between the perforations of the adjacent row and said plate being relatively arranged to a blade, F, substantially as shown.

Andrew Partridge.
Dennis F. Sweeney.

Witnesses:

R. F. Hyde,

F. R. Richmond.