A Razor King’s Forgotten Dream: A Utopian Empire Powered by Niagara Falls
A scene from the film Metropolis.
Most people know Gillette as the name on their razor. But the man behind the brand—King Camp Gillette—was more than an inventor. He was a utopian dreamer who looked at Niagara Falls and saw not just a natural wonder, but the foundation for a whole new world.
While Tesla and Edison were battling to harness the power of the Falls in the 1890s, Gillette was writing The Human Drift, a radical plan to reshape society. His idea? A single, perfect city called Metropolis, home to all 60 million Americans, powered entirely by Niagara Falls. Everyone would live in gleaming cylindrical towers. Every surface—walls, sidewalks, buildings—would be covered in white porcelain tile. There’d be no war, no poverty, no competition. Just clean energy, shared wealth, and unified purpose.
At the heart of this utopia was a single company: The United Company, owned by the people, designed to eliminate corporate greed and waste. Gillette believed this wasn’t just possible—it was inevitable.
A Masonic engraved razor kit.
And he knew exactly where to build it:
“For many reasons I have come to the conclusion that there is no spot on the American continent, and possibly the world, that combines so many natural advantages as that section of our country lying in the vicinity of Niagara Falls, extending east into New York State and west into Ontario.”
The city would stretch from Buffalo to Rochester and beyond to Hamilton, Ontario, laid out in layers: utilities below, transit above that, and life above all. The whole city would hum on hydroelectric power from the Falls. It was ambitious. Beautiful. And a little terrifying.
Gillette devoted the rest of his life to making it happen. He published more books. He asked Teddy Roosevelt to run his utopia. He teamed up with Upton Sinclair. He even pitched Henry Ford—but the meeting ended in shouting.
In the end, Gillette never saw Metropolis built. He made millions on razors, lost much of it in the crash of 1929, and died in 1932. But his dream still lingers.
Echoes in Today’s World
Fast forward to today: in South Buffalo, Tesla’s Gigafactory 2 now stands on the site of a former steel plant, funded by New York’s Buffalo Billion. It’s the largest solar panel factory in the Western Hemisphere. Like Gillette’s Metropolis, it was meant to usher in a clean-energy future. But the reality—political scandal, stalled promises, and a billionaire CEO who backs inequality—feels far from utopia.
Still, the parallels are striking. Both Gillette and Musk believed Niagara Falls could power the future. Both imagined centralized production. Both promised revolution through renewable energy.
One believed in shared wealth. The other, private empire.
Image of King Camp Gillette after his great financial success.
The Roar of What Could’ve Been
Gillette’s dream was extravagant, flawed—and far ahead of its time. But as climate change, automation, and corporate consolidation reshape our world, his questions still matter: What if we designed cities for people, not profit? What if power—electrical and political—flowed from nature, not monopolies?
So next time you’re near the roar of the Falls, pause. Imagine not just what’s there—but what could have been. A porcelain city. A shared future. A utopia built on water and willpower.
Gillette’s imagined apartment complex.
An image of the planned utopia, “Metropolis.”
