Life, 1910-02-17 · page 8 of 44
Life — February 17, 1910 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Detroit Electric automobile advertisement**, not political satire or a cartoon. The page promotes the Anderson Carriage Company's electric vehicles by emphasizing manufacturing integration and quality control. The key argument: unlike competitors who assemble parts from various suppliers, Detroit Electric manufactures all components (battery, motor, body, chassis) in-house. This allows them to guarantee the entire vehicle and "stand back" of every part. The accompanying photograph shows an elegant electric car with well-dressed passengers, reflecting the luxury market these vehicles occupied in the early 1900s. The sales pitch targets affluent buyers concerned with reliability, positioning Detroit Electric as superior to assembled alternatives where no single manufacturer accepts full responsibility.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Battery, motor, body and chassis— all built in the great plant of the Anderson Carriage Company Every essential part in an electric carriage should be manufactured in perfect harmony with the balance of the construction—as the 2@#“ Electric alone, of all electric carriages, is manufactured. The battery should be built for the motor and the motor for the battery; and both should be perfect parts of a perfect whole—not the haphazard contributions of manufacturers working thousands of miles apart with totally different ideas. In the .2@ Electric alone do you buy a centrali- zation of responsibility—an earnest guarantee from the manufacturer which says:— “We will stand back of the battery; because we built it. “We will stand back of the motor because we manu- factured it. “We will guarantee the body, because it is designed, shaped, assembled and finished in our own shops.” Unless you buy this security—which you buy in the D2 and in no other electric carriage — you pay merely for a hope expressed by the man who sells you, that the battery (which was made by someone else)and the motor (which was made by someone else) may not prove deficient. He cannot guarantee them—because he did not build them. Back of every 222 Electric is an investment of more than a million dollars which says of your carriage:— “This is our work. We are proud of it. We vouch for it. And we will not try to shoulder the responsi- bility on to the maker of some one of its parts.” Isn’t that an assurance worth having ? Anderson Carriage Company, Isn't it an advantage to drive a manufactured Datel. Electric instead of an assembled something else ? Study the electric carriage situation in your own community. Observe how the .22@8% Electric is dis placing other makes. Then you will begin to appreciate the importance ot the headline on this announcement—Battery, motor body and chassis—all built complete in the great plant of the Anderson riage Company. The DLE jiterature should have the taought{u! perusal of every intending electric buyer. Dept. LM, _ Detroit, Mich. comicbooks.com