for fifteen dollars. However, his machine made little impression in Europe and his first attempts were not even mentioned in the professional press, perhaps because they were too long-winded, cumbersome and dangerous. Eugene Suter and Isidoro Calvete Eugene Suter was a Swiss immigrant who set up a fashionable ladies' salon in London's West End. He claimed to have come from Paris, which in those days was the center of fashion and style. He became aware of the possibilities of electrical permanent waving particularly when shorter hair allowed the design of smaller equipment. The system had two parts; one was the electric heater and the other was the system of winding and holding the hair on a form which was inserted into a heater. Suter tried to design a heater, but was unsuccessful. Isidoro Calvete was a Spanish immigrant who set up a workshop for the repair and manufacture of electrical equipment in the same area of London in 1917. This equipment was just coming into use for the hairdressing and medical professions. Suter consulted him on the heater and Calvete designed a practical model consisting of two windings inserted into an aluminium tube. This ensured that when inserted over a root winding, the thicker hair nearer to the root became hotter than the thinner hair at the end. Suter patented the design in his own name and for the next 12 years ordered all his hairdressing equipment from Calvete but marketed under his commercial name, Eugene Ltd, which became synonymous with permanent waving throughout the world. At the same time, Calvete developed his own products which he manufactured under the name Icall, Ltd. The simultaneous manufacture of two competing lines would inevitably result in conflict. From the onset, Eugene realised the importance of the United States market and made great inroads, challenging Nessler who had started up there. The former also sued the latter for infringing the patent which he had taken out based on Calvete's design, and won his case. Nessler was to retaliate some years later suing Eugene in the United Kingdom, over some curlers designed by Calvete which were similar to the Nessler ones. Development of the heaters The first heaters as described above were tubular, and were inserted over the hair which had been previously wound on to a form or curler. To facilitate this, after a preliminary preparation of the hair, such as washing, cutting