K as in Klinge

Klinge means Blade. The American travelling salesman King Camp Gillette wanted to get rich. The best way to achieve this goal, he thought, would be to invent a practical disposable product. This would guarantee demand for all eternity, he reasoned. Moreover, what if, instead of sharpening the blade of their straight razors – a precursor to today’s conventional safety razors – before each shave, he could convince men to use little thin steel plates with a double-edged blade that could be replaced as soon as they got blunt? It took a bit of tinkering before Gillette’s shaver with replaceable blades was finally patented in 1904. His innovation quickly caught on. The extent to which our throw-away society has evolved is reflected by the fact that the blade, which once entailed a great deal of waste, is now only a relatively small item in need of disposal – compared with multi-blade razors, which are disposed of in their entirety.