Life, 1910-02-17 · page 2 of 44
Life — February 17, 1910 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily an **advertisement**, not editorial content or satire. It promotes the Klaxon, an automobile horn manufactured by the Klaxon Company (New York City) and Lovell-McConnell Mfg. Co. (Newark, New Jersey). The ad uses a maritime safety angle: a small boat in foggy conditions with an American flag. The copy explains that fog disperses sound unpredictably, but the Klaxon's "saw-tooth" sound waves can cut through fog better than ordinary horns. The pitch is that car owners with a Klaxon are "safer" than those with steam whistles. This is straightforward product marketing exploiting contemporary anxieties about automotive safety and navigation in poor visibility—not political satire or social commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘Chass Mail Maner FOG BANK disperses ordinary sound, much as it does light. Smooth musical notes are thrown hither and thither by the moving masses of vapor, and no man can tell where they originate. A whistle in a fog may be called “the mirage of sound.” 7 It is the peculiar merit of the KLAXON that its harsh “saw-tooth” sound-waves cut through a fog bank by reason of their greater acoustic energy. The note of the KLAXON is like a succession of small explosions, too rapid for the ear to separate. Its direction of travel and the source of the sound are perfectly definite. In a fog, the owner of a KLAXON is safer than if he had a steam whistle aboard. Even before he has located an approaching steamer, the navigating officer of the latter is apprised of his whereabouts. THE KLAXON COMPANY, Sole Distributors for U. S. A. 1 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY LOVELL-McCONNELL MFG. CO., Manufacturers NEWARK, NEW JERSEY comicbooks.com