Life, 1906-01-11 · page 26 of 26
Life — January 11, 1906 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward automobile advertisement from *Life* magazine (January 11, 1906). The page promotes the Franklin automobile's technical superiority, particularly its 20-horsepower air-cooled four-cylinder engine. The ad argues that Franklin cars outperform competitors rated at 40 horsepower because they waste less power through friction in transmissions, clutches, and other mechanical systems. Key selling points emphasized: - Lightweight construction (air-cooling eliminated heavy water-cooling apparatus) - Efficient power delivery - Superior suspension design reducing vibration losses - Innovative engineering that other manufacturers initially dismissed as impossible The tagline "The Motor Car of the Future" reflects early automotive industry competition. The ad positions Franklin as technically superior through engineering ingenuity rather than raw horsepower—a marketing strategy common in the pioneering automobile era when standardization hadn't yet occurred.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Type D, four-cylinder cat. Air-cooled, 20 “Franklin hone- * shalt-drive; sliding gear transmission ; 3 speeds and reverse; new and perfect disc clutch, force-feed oiler on the dash; side doors, 00-inch wheel-base, 4 ot 5 passengers, 45 miles an hour. 1800 pounds, Full head- and tail-light equipment. $2800 f.0.b. Syracuse. Why the astonishing fact that this Franklin car, rated at 20, «Franklin ) 8 9 " horse-power,” does more, on average roads, than any other car rated at 40 horse-power? * First: the real pr portion of usable power is more than | over the car, Other cars lose enormous amounts of power in Other sted at the maximum horse-power the clutch, transmission, joints in the shaft, bevel-gear, rear r engine, ru tu the shop under tdeal conditions. | axe bearings—power is lost everywhere. "In the Franklin cars are rated at the power they develop under the this loss is ‘rifling. 1 his is a matter of fact and proof, and ge speed on the réad at 20'miles an hour, we have gone to the bottom of it. weight. Franklin air-cooling means a light engine Then: tion, This is of enormous importance. It and light construction thro ughout ne water or water-cooling uses up power to shake a car, as it uses up power to shake apparatus; no heavy frame to carry them. At least 200 your fist. A rough road reduces the power of the average pounds saved on weight construc tio n, car 50 per cent or more, and a very rough road often stops Then: little power lost between the engine and the rear the car altogether. The Franklin full elliptical spring sus wheels. The same engineering abifity that designed and pa. with its flexible wood-sill, takes up the vibration, refined the marvelous motor has refined and saved power all leaving the working parts free to do their work, Not one reason but a dozen, all thought out and worked out with the same thoroughness and disregard of precedent which invented the Franklin four-cylinder air-cooled motor, when all the other American makers said that four-cylinders were unnecessary and that air-cooling was impossible. Send for the Franklin 1906 catalogue—-by far the handsomest motor book ever made—which tells about 4-cylinder Runabout, $1400 4-cylinder Touring Car, $2800 4-cylinder Light Touring Car, $1800 6-cylinder Touring Car, $4000 Prices f. 0. b. Syracuse, N. Y. H. H. FRANKLIN MFG. CO., Syracuse, N. Y., M.A.L.A.M. ‘The Motor Car of the Future” PRESS OF THE J. W. PRATT CO., NEW YORK. COMICDOOKS-COM