Page:The Gillette Blade, 1918-02.pdf/9

Rh menting. Mr. Stewart thought he knew a man who might promote a company, and thus be able to secure money to develop the razor commercially. He introduced me to a Mr. Heilborn, and at our first talk I told him we would need a practical man to give his time and attention to perfecting the blade, without which we could not succeed. Mr. Heilborn knew a Mr. Nickerson who was a graduate of Technology and a very successful mechanician. It sounded good and a time was set for meeting Mr. Nickerson at Mr. Heilborn's office. When the meeting took place it developed that Mr. Nickerson was employed by the Automatic Weighing Machine Company, but as they did not use all his time, he agreed to take on the razor and give half his time for a year, provided we would raise $5000 and put it in the bank, half of which was to be paid to him for salary and the other half was to pay rent and purchase a few tools, etc., for his use.

We accepted his terms and then came up the question of securing the $5000. It was finally decided to form a corporation of $500,000 divided into 50,000 shares of $10 each. Mr. Stewart and Mr. Heilborn were the ones appointed to sell shares and secure the $5000 needed. We came to a mutual agreement as follows—$100,000 of the capital stock was set aside and divided into twenty blocks of $5000 each, to be sold for $250 for each block, which would bring the $5000 needed. Next there was divided between Messrs. Stewart, Heilborn and Nickerson $125,000 of the capital stock for their services,—each receiving $41,250. Next there was set aside $100,000 for the treasury, which left me out of a total capital of $500,000—$175,000. Our company was formed and Mr. Stewart and Mr. Heilborn started to sell the twenty blocks of stock, but after more than three months' time had elapsed, they had only succeeded in selling thirteen blocks out of the twenty, so in order to complete the sale and get Mr. Nickerson started on his work, I gave up 4,000 shares of my stock as an inducement to a third party who completed the sale of the twenty blocks.

I will make a little digression here to tell a little side story about one of the twenty blocks that was sold to secure the $5000. Mr. Stewart was in the bottling business in Millis, Mass., where Clicquot Club Ginger Ale is now made, and there came to him one day C. L. Flacius, of Pittsburgh, a manufacturer of bottles, who as an inducement for Stewart to buy bottles purchased a block of razor stock for $250, which he considered of no particular value and when he got back to Pittsburgh he put it in his safe and forgot all about it. I bought this block of stock from Flacius personally four years later for $62,500 cash and to do so I mortgaged and pledged everything I had in the world. I secured the money to carry out this purchase from the First National Bank of Boston.

Our first Company was called the American Safety Razor Company and my name was given to the corporation later. After securing the $5000, we rented a small room on a top floor on Atlantic Avenue, Boston, where we could get a little