Life, 1910-05-05 · page 51 of 72
Life — May 5, 1910 — page 51: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **product advertisement**, not a political cartoon. The page promotes the Warner Auto-Meter, a speedometer for automobiles. The ad's pitch is straightforward: while cheaper speed indicators exist, the Warner Auto-Meter costs more because it's superior quality—"the aristocrat of speed indicators." The headline "Better Be Sure Than Sorry" warns motorists against false economy. The argument: buying an inferior, cheaper speedometer is false savings; thousands have learned this through "costly experience" and now use Warner products. The accompanying images show early aviation scenes (biplanes, Wright brothers) unrelated to the speedometer itself—likely included because Life magazine featured such photographs and A.P. Warner (the advertiser) wanted to associate his brand with technological progress and innovation. The dense listing of branch offices nationwide indicates Warner Instrument Company was a significant manufacturer of the era (early 1900s), when automobile accessories were still novel and speedometers were relatively new technology.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Better Be Sure Than Sorry | VING aside the question of price, every motorist would have the Warner Auto-Meter on his car. For during all the long years of its career it has stood alone as the one-speed indicating device which was abso- lutely satisfactory and reliable under all ser- vice conditions—‘‘the aristocrat of speed indicators.” But because the Warner Auto-Meter costs more, many a motorist has thought to buy as good an instrument more cheaply. There are thousands of motorists using the Warner Auto-Meter now who reached it over this road of costly experience. Ask one about it. “The Asiocrst of Speed Ten Models $50 to $145 For it is an incontrovertible fact that to build a mechanically and artistically perfect speed-indicating device costs money—and it can’t be sold for a song. And it is equally true that unless you have a perfect speed indicator you are simply guessing, and might as well have none. You will save time, trouble and in the end money, if you investigate the Warner Auto-Meter now. Write or call for Descriptive Booklet Warner Instrument Co., wheter Avenue, Beloit, Wis. Branches: ATLANTA. 116 Edgew venue; BOSTON, 925 Boylston Street; BUFFALO, 720 Main Street; CHICAGO, 2420 ichigan Avenue; 107, Main Street ; , 2062 Euclid Avenue; . 1$18 Broadwa; Michigan A\ CIN: ATI, 807 Main St CLEVELAND, 2063, Euclid’ A DENVE! 8 Broadway; DETROIT, 870 Woodward Avenue POLIS, 330-331 ilinot KANSAS CITY,’ 1613 Grand Avenue; LOS ANGELES, 748 South Olive Street; NEW YORK. 1902 Broa PHILADELPHIA 302 North Broad Street; PITTSBURG. 5940 Kirkwood Street; SAN FRANCISCO, 36-38 an Ness Avena TTLE, 611 East Pike Street; ST. LOUIS, 3923 Olive Street, Aviation Note !t will be noted that all of the pictures illustrating human flight used in our advertisements have been of heavier-than-air machines, That is be- cause I believe that the dirigible balloon has but a limited field of usefulness at best, and will eventually be discarded, except for certain specific purposes. It is unwieldy, highly inflammable, expensive to build and most expensive to inflate. The top picture hows two biplanes i in the air at once at Los Angeles; the next is Paulhan flying at Jamaica, Long Island; the third is the first flight of the Bleriot monoplane in America; and the fourth, Orville Wright at Fort Myer. The two top photos are by Walter L. Huff, the other two by Paul Thompson. A. P. WARNER comicbooks.com