He filed nineteen patents, among them one for a mechanical razor with a removable blade in 1880 — twenty-four years before Gillette. His chapel says nothing of it: it depicts his son Robert, dead at thirteen in 1904, a dog seated at his side, and its two escutcheons speak only of the child.
The story
Auguste Pierre Bain was born on 13 October 1856 at Vinay, in l'Isère, and lies in the family chapel in Division 93. At twenty-three he filed the patent for an object the twentieth century would put in every bathroom: the safety razor.
In 1878 Bain founded in Paris his “Maison des inventions nouvelles”, the House of New Inventions, on the boulevard des Italiens at the corner of the rue Taitbout, with a workshop at 24 rue du Faubourg-du-Temple. Between 1880 and 1905 he filed nineteen patents: the mechanical razor on 9 June 1880, twenty-four years before Gillette put his on the market, then hair clippers in 1885 and a sharpening machine in 1894. His flat razor would be manufactured until 1960.
Settled at Bois-Colombes, Bain took a part in public life: a town councillor from 1896 to 1904, he obtained the opening of the town's first crèche. On 17 May 1904 his only son Robert died at thirteen of septicaemia that began with a dental abscess. Bain founded a “Prix Robert-Bain” in his name and bought, on 19 July, the plot at Père-Lachaise: it was taken for the child, not for himself.
The chapel was decorated by the sculptor Pierre Vaudrey (1873-1951), a specialist in the funerary art of the cemetery: Robert can be recognised there, a dog sitting at his side. Auguste Bain died on 22 February 1916 at his villa Beauséjour, in Bois-Colombes. His widow gave the town the avenue Robert-Bain in 1928 — the child ended up with his street, and his father with a chapel that speaks of no one but him.
The grave
A chapel bought in July 1904, two months after the child's death, and decorated by Pierre Vaudrey (1873-1951), a sculptor who specialised in the funerary art of Père-Lachaise: it depicts Robert with a dog seated at his side. The inscriptions say nothing of the man who paid for it. Left escutcheon: “En mémoire de notre fils, Robert BAIN, né le 28 février 1891, mort le 17 mai 1904.” — In memory of our son Robert Bain, born 28 February 1891, died 17 May 1904. Right escutcheon, these verses: “La mort a des rigueurs à nulle autre pareille, on a beau la prier, la cruelle qu'elle est se bouche les oreilles, et nous laisse crier.” — Death has a harshness like no other; plead with her as we may, the cruel one stops her ears and leaves us to cry out. Neither the razor, nor the nineteen patents, nor the fortune they made.
On site, do not miss
The chapel says nothing of the razor: it depicts Robert, a dog seated at his side, and its two escutcheons are devoted to him. The second bears verses of a bitterness rare on a gravestone.
Visitors' questions
Where is Auguste Bain's grave?
In Division 93, avenue Carette, first row, in a family chapel decorated by Pierre Vaudrey (1873-1951), a specialist in the funerary art of the cemetery. It shows his son Robert, with a dog sitting beside him.
Robert PlanquetteDid Auguste Bain invent the razor before Gillette?
His patent for a mechanical razor with a removable blade dates from 1880; Gillette was granted his on 15 November 1904, twenty-four years later. Bain filed nineteen patents in all, between 1880 and 1905.
Charles RossignolWhat else did he invent?
A barber's clipper (1885), a machine for grinding, honing and stropping (1894), a mechanical trouser-lifter, an egg slicer, a skirt-hanging clip, a mudguard tyre and a piston-mounted bumper he named “Protector Robert”.
François Auguste GamichonWho was Robert Bain?
His son, who died on 17 May 1904 at thirteen of septicaemia from a dental abscess. His father bought the plot two months later, had an avenue named after him laid out at Bois-Colombes and endowed a scholarship for deserving schoolchildren.
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