Need a little help on valid/verifiable shaving history

Couple questions;
When was the first Gillette (or any) standard DE razor? The earliest I have found was the 1903 OT. Am I correct?

How many DE blade factories left worldwide? Here is what I have so far. No so much worried about brands they produce, but knowing them helps me keep them straight.
US-Personna
Israel-Personna
Egypt-Shark, Big Ben
Japan-Feather
Thailand-Gillette mini-Thins
St. Petersburg Russia-Vokshod, Polsilver, Sputnik
Turkey-Derby, zaza
Greece-BIC
Korea-Dorco
Germany-Wilkinson Sword
India-Gillette 7 o'clock, SuperMax
Pakistan-Trig, Treet

So 11 or so DE mfrs left in the world?

Hey Oldschool, Global Sources lists a total of (32) not sure how reliable though but you could always site the source and leave it at that.

The problem I am having is finding peer reviewed verifiable sources---that ARE NOT web sites like DFS and the other two. Colleges seem to have a disdain for web-driven content, and frown upon wikipedia and member driven info sites.

No surprise there. You can't ground your research on marketing literature, someone trying to sell you something, someone trying to convince you to join them in their agenda, or the general internet where anyone can say anything they want.

Try this. http://www.dr-jetskeultee.nl/jetskeultee...having.pdf and its references. Although funded by P&G, and of course they are trying to sell something - wet shaving. They are fundamentally talking about cartridges but there is a lot of info in there.

Who knew a cartridge razor was 25 nm, or a few hundred atoms wide?

Good info Grim. I will incorporate the trapped hair follicle and the need for a scritchy brush to exfoliate and free them up for cutting. Anybody that has ever mapped their neck growth probly saw that, but just never knew how extreme it can be and the bumps that can result from them. kwsher, still trying to weed through that site. It isnt user friendly. But is shows blades i have never seen or heard of before. More to investigate...

Its a frickin rabbit hole the hobby of ours...

Well the speech is done. It was fabulously awesome. These young'ens never knew me to be a head shaver either so that added to the credibility of my speech when I took off my hat for my conclusion. I knew I would run a little over my timeframe...but I messed up. I was supposed to do a max of 7 minutes. I spoke for 25 minutes. Everybody really enjoyed it and I had fun, but feel really dumb for going sooo far over my limit. I hope she doesn't pop me too hard on the grade.

Well the speech is done. It was fabulously awesome. These young'ens never knew me to be a head shaver either so that added to the credibility of my speech when I took off my hat for my conclusion. I knew I would run a little over my timeframe...but I messed up. I was supposed to do a max of 7 minutes. I spoke for 25 minutes. Everybody really enjoyed it and I had fun, but feel really dumb for going sooo far over my limit. I hope she doesn't pop me too hard on the grade.

Nice and glad that it went well. Did one of those whippersnappers video the performance? Would enjoy checking it out.

Congrats!

It was video taped. I will have access when the instructor posts it for us to review. I had thought about snagging it off of the college website and either loading it to u-tube or somehow imbedding it in this thread for a short time for grins and giggles. But alas if it truely is 25 minutes, I'd hate to bore you guys to death with info you already know. Even though I did wear my B&M Hallows skull shirt

Even though I did wear my B&M Hallows skull shirt

Must post. Awesome!

Well the speech is done. It was fabulously awesome. These young'ens never knew me to be a head shaver either so that added to the credibility of my speech when I took off my hat for my conclusion. I knew I would run a little over my timeframe...but I messed up. I was supposed to do a max of 7 minutes. I spoke for 25 minutes. Everybody really enjoyed it and I had fun, but feel really dumb for going sooo far over my limit. I hope she doesn't pop me too hard on the grade.

She had better not or there will be 1,300+ DFSers who will be mightily ticked off at her and she really doesn't want to feel that!

Well the speech is done. It was fabulously awesome. These young'ens never knew me to be a head shaver either so that added to the credibility of my speech when I took off my hat for my conclusion. I knew I would run a little over my timeframe...but I messed up. I was supposed to do a max of 7 minutes. I spoke for 25 minutes. Everybody really enjoyed it and I had fun, but feel really dumb for going sooo far over my limit. I hope she doesn't pop me too hard on the grade.

She had better not or there will be 1,300+ DFSers who will be mightily ticked off at her and she really doesn't want to feel that!

Hell hath no fury like a bunch of clean shaven, fresh smelling fellas