Word: shave
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Prehistoric man, a history of shaving relates, shaved with clams and animal teeth, or pieces of flint sharpened against harder stones. Because of the inconvenience of these razors, however, the practice of walking clean-shaven didn't really catch on until 356 B.C. when bronze razors were available, according to the text. In that year, Roman hero Scipio Africanus celebrated his victory over arch-rival Hannibal with a clean shave and from there on, progress has been steady in helping man's continuing battle against the beard: in the mid-1100s Arab engineers introduced the steel razor, the 17th-century...
...distinction begs a final question. The most extensive shave ever attempted in the research room came in 1975 when, according to 43-year Gillette employee Mary Nagle, an employee came in with "a big grey beard, which had black in it." Apparently driven beyond endurance by the paradox of spending his days making razors while sporting a beard of at least 12 inches (descriptions vary), this man had attempted to end the beard at home, with a TRAC II, but was foiled by the slim extension of the blades. In desperation, Nagle says, he came to the Research Room. Again...
Then came 1971, and the moment that changed the way the world shaves forever. Working in conditions of absolute secrecy, Gillette scientists perfected a shaving technique known as "hystersis"--a two-blade system in which the first razor gave the beard a rough cut and then cunningly pulled it away from the face. . . where a second blade (placed exactly 60 one-thousandths of an inch behind the first) could snip it close to the skin before it had a chance to fall back in place. The result: the world's closest shave. They called the razor TRAC...
Fortunately, the development of shaving theory does not take place on the factory floor but, rather, in the Shaving Research Room. The Research Room is the practical, populist alternative to the cold technology of the Development Room in the New Products Division (also classified as a sensitive area and closed to reporters). No pointy-headed scientists or threatening electron microscopes here, just a humble row of five sinks, hot and cold running water, and a comprehensive assortment of all the shaving products available in the United States today. Through this room between two and three hundred employees of the company...
...subjects talk about death, murder, suicide in the thousands; they describe the stench of rotting and burning flesh; they recall the feeling of human hair in their hands as theywere compelled to shave those condemned to murder; they describe the feeling of carrying stiff corpses rigid from the gas chambers. At most one could attempt to convey the feeling of watching it, of listening to people speak about unspeakable horrors which they have themselves experienced. In nearly 10 hours, (the film is shown in two halves, on separate nights) there is not a slow moment, not a gratuitous detail...