Life, 1909-09-16 · page 23 of 32
Life — September 16, 1909 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **full-page automobile advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. It promotes the 1910 Elmore automobile manufactured in Clyde, Ohio. The ad makes claims typical of early auto marketing: that the Elmore's two-cycle engine is simpler, more reliable, and cheaper to maintain than competing four-cycle engines. Key selling points include only three moving parts, 50 mph capability, and prices of $1,750-$2,500. The rhetorical strategy compares the Elmore favorably to four-cycle cars by emphasizing their mechanical complexity and frequent repairs. The ad acknowledges that buyers want reliability and low maintenance—concerns that suggest automobiles were still novel, temperamental machines requiring constant upkeep. For modern readers: this reflects an era when car engines were radically experimental, with competing technologies competing for dominance. The ad's emphasis on simplicity as a virtue shows how unreliable early automobiles were.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The 1910 ELMORE Model 36 . Supplied as Five-passenger, four-cylinder _ Touring Car. Four-Passenger, four-cylinder cted to Detachable Demi-Tonneau. Serancpursenger,, foutsephader Four cylinder Doctor's Coupe. Limousine. Four-cylinder Landaulet. The 1910 ELMORE Model 46 Supplied as Seven-passenger, four-cylinder iericar, i Touring Car. Model 46—$2500 The ELMORE is the one car of which you can safely say: ‘‘To-morrow—or a year from to-morrow —it will run as finely as it did to-day.”’ Do you realize that there are four or five thousand people (Elmore Your own eyes will tell one-half the story when you inspect the owners) in this country who know nothing whatever about the two 1910 Elmore engines—the cleanest, simplest motors you troubles you encounter in your four-cycle car—who never have ever seen—with just three moving parts, and all the parts known them? which make for trouble and expense completely eliminated. Which leads to the pertinent question: What qualities do you The Model 36 four-cylinder Elmore is good at any time and all especially seek and expect when you buy a car? times for 50 miles an hour on the straightaway; develops a full 36 H. P.; will take a grade of 6 to 8 per cent. at 35 to 40 miles You are not merely looking for a car, are you, which will run? ba an hour—and sells for $1750.00. Certainly not. No car of its type and size at anything like the price will compare with it in performance and offer the same perfect immunity from trouble and expense. Model 46 is the most perfect two-cycle motor the world has ever seen—because it incorporates an infallible system of gas dis- tribution which supplies the one element which engineers have always agreed would make the Elmore engine the peer of any You would like to, find, if you could, a car which is practically re- pair-proof; which you would not be compelled to build over, by replacing some vital part, every 30, 60 or 90 days; whose life would not be a single season, but an indefinite number of sea- sons; whose cost of maintenance would be practically nil. ‘ut you realize the futility of seeking such a car in the four-cycle field; because you know that the principle of the four-cycle en- gine itself makes such certainty a mechanical impossibili As long as you have valves and cams and springs and lifts and rollers with all their consequential troubles—just so long must you say to yourself: “ Well, the car made to-day’s trip beauti- fully—but how about to-morrow?” other in existence, “We admit all your other superiorities over the four-cycle,” they have said, ‘and if you add this tremendous advantage without the complication peculiar to the four-cycle type, all argument will be at an end.” All argument is at an end. Both 1910 models will overwhelm you with evidence of the four-cycle exasperations from which they set you free. The Model 46 (46 H. P. and a speed capacity of 60 miles an hour), compared with the costliest engines extant, will point out in the latter, by comparison, glaring deficiencies from which there is no escape. =e t seems impossible to you that any car could be free from this clement of uncertainty and mental strain—and yet every Elmore owner is absolutely free from it. » the two 1910 models these qualities are developed to a point of absolute certitude—as no two-cycle motor and no other motor in the world has ever been developed. Mark that statement and verify it—the 1910 Elmore has the Mees simplest, the safest, the surest and the most economical motor hood inwtate in the world to-day; and an ignition system so perfect that you Elmore which will make you revise all your Clyde, Ohio. ideas of automobile value. Send me the ad- , . 3 Fi 5 : vance literature, de- We mean this comparison to include any four-cycle engine—in the Get in touch at once with your Elmore Pariper tnt DOES ; iol eine ial ae ‘ valveless two-cycl car you own, or plan to own—whether its price be the highest dealer and write for the 1910 litera- Payer pony or the lowest. ture. Sixen-passenger Elmore at THE ELMORE MANUFACTURING COMPANY 2904 Amanda Street, Clyde, Ohio Member Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers Tf you are ready to make the most casual sort of in- vestigation, a revelation awaits you in the 1910 are actually not conscious of its presence in the car. comicbooks.com