Life, 1910-01-06 · page 13 of 76
Life — January 6, 1910 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Fox Metallic Tire Belt Company advertisement** from Life magazine, not political satire or comics. The decorative header features stylized letters "FOX" with a fox illustration and a ship's wheel, but these are ornamental branding elements rather than satirical commentary. The advertisement's central claim addresses a practical consumer concern: anti-skid tire chains that damage tires. Fox claims their chain design—with broad, flat links rather than cutting edges—prevents tire damage while maintaining safety on icy roads. The text emphasizes durability (chains lasting 3,000+ miles versus competitors' 300) and cost-effectiveness, positioning Fox chains as a premium product worth the higher price. This reflects early 20th-century winter driving challenges before modern tire technology, when tire chains were essential safety equipment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Fox Anti-Skid Tire Chain prevents skidding absolutely. It is the only chain which does. We stand behind this statement fully—it will keep your car from skidding. It will enable you to use your car on days when you would not dare take it out otherwise. You are SAFE, your car is safe when equipped with Fox Chains no matter what the condition of the roads —safe on slippery, greasy asphalt, on ice and snow covered Macadam, on slimy cobbles, on car tracks—on any road or street. Fox Anti-Skid Chains will enable you to use your car sixty days—fwo solid months more ina year than you can without them. The Fox Chain WON’T hurt your tires OF course you have had perfectly good shoes cut to pieces by chains, rT a EXHIBITING AT ALL SHOWS. AND SEE THE FOX FOR YOURSELF You can hammer the cross links of THIS Anti-Skid Chain with a sledge hammer, but you CAN’T MAKE them cut the tires. Of course you have had great holes gouged in them by the cutting links of the chains, and so ruined in one day's driving, shoe after shoe which would have been perfectly good for a thousand miles more had not the chains cut them to pieces. Most motorists dread to put on chains almost as much as they dread to skid. The Fox is NOT that kind of a chain In the Fox, no edge, no cutting sur- face of any kind comes against the tire. Nothing except a broad, flat, perfectly smooth metal surface without edges, touches the tire. The broad flat links fit the shoe as harmlessly and as closely as a piece of tire tape. If you should swing a heavy sledge hammer against the links of the Fox Cross Chain, not once, but many times, you could not make it cut into the tires. If you should do this with other chains, you would quickly drive the links 77/0 the COME Metallic Tire Belt © New York Salesrooms: tubber and cu/ a great hole perhaps with the very first blow. Fox Chains have proven by actual service of the hardest sort in the hands of private car owners that they wear for over three thousand miles where other chains go to pieces in three hun- dred miles. They cost a little more than other makes but they will wear many times as long and during their life will save you several hundred dollars in tire expense over other chains, We have a booklet which will tell you more about Fox Chains than a dozen ads, like this. It will tell you also how to save your tires. Cut out the coupon to-day, fill out and mail to us—it’s valuable and it's free. Fox Metallic Tire Belt Co., 17-19 McKibben St., Brooklyn, N. Y. Please send me your Free Booklet on Fox Tire Chains. Name Street City My Dealer or Garageis Dealer's Name City eee 17-19 McKibben Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. Broadway at 68th Street comicbooks.com