Razor be used on both sides, with two open edges. The blade on the double-edged safety razor is slightly curved to allow for a smoother and cleaner shave. In 1901, the American inventor King Camp Gillette, with the assistance of William Nickerson, patented a new variation of safety razor with disposable blades. Gillette realized that a profit could be made by selling an inexpensive razor with disposable blades. This has been called the razor and blades business model, and has become a very common practice for a wide variety of products. Many other brands of safety razors have come and gone.
Western Cartridge Company for southern Illinois coal mining began in 1893. Olin formed Western Cartridge Company in 1898 to manufacture sporting rifle powder and shotgun shells for settlers of the Great Plains. The shotgun shells used primers manufactured by larger eastern ammunition firms. When the firms with primer manufacturing facilities raised primer prices in 1900 to reduce competition from independent shotgun shell assembly plants, Western Cartridge Company formed the Union Cap and Chemical Company (UCC) as a joint venture with Austin Cartridge Company of Ohio. UCC manufactured primers, blasting caps, and .22 and .32 caliber rimfire cartridges at East Alton. Similar manufacturing procedures