Life, 1911-01-19 · page 3 of 44
Life — January 19, 1911 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward advertisement for the "Ironclad-Exide" battery, placed in Life magazine's advertising section. The image shows an early electric automobile with a well-dressed woman driver, representing the target market: affluent consumers considering electric vehicles. The ad emphasizes battery reliability, claiming the Exide battery powers over 90% of electric vehicles manufactured. The "Electric Storage Battery Co." (based in Philadelphia, 1888-1911) lists major automobile manufacturers using their product, including Baker, Columbia, and Rauch & Lang—names now historically obscure. This reflects a pre-1920 moment when electric vehicles competed seriously with gasoline cars, before internal combustion engines became dominant. The ad's emphasis on maintenance-free operation and improved mileage suggests these were genuine consumer concerns of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ao -LIFE- What Every Owner: of an .. Electric Vehicle Should Know First of all the BATTERY. Other things are elemental—accepted as matters of course. Elec- tric car makers know how to do their work right. THE BATTERY is the great essential—the selection of which cannot be too carefully made. There are a number of different batteries made, yet more than 90% of all electric vehicles manufac- tured are equipped with the “J&xfde’’ Battery. These famous makers use the famous “Exide’’: Automobile Maintenance & Mfg. Co. Couple Gear Freight Wheel Co. Phipps-Grinnell Auto Co. Baker Motor Vehicle Co. Columbia Motor Car Co, Rauch & Lang Carriage Co. Batten-Dayton Motor Co. Hupp-Yeatts Electric Car Co. Studebaker Automobile Co. Broc Electric Vehicle Co. Ideal Electric Co. The Dayton Electromobile Co. Columbus Buggy Co. C. P. Kimball & Co. The Waverley Co. Champion Wagon Co. Ohio Electric Car Co. Woods Motor Vehicle Co. This preponderance of use is due to these facts: The Electric Storage Battery Co. has always made the best battery; it has had more experience; it has the largest plant; it has the most efficient methods of testing and proving its product; it has the world’s greatest corps of battery experts constantly searching, inventing, improving—and the result is better and better batteries. The latest product of this great organization is the “fronclad=Exide” Battery —a battery that has two to three times the life; that seldom if ever requires cleaning; that gives increased mileage; that can be installed wherever jars of standard ‘* Ex{de" size are used. The “Wronclad-Extde" is immensely superior to any other battery ever made. It is the development of years of quiet but active study and experiment, and long tests already made have proven its entire dependability. Write the nearest Sales Office today for the book on this new and most serviceable battery—The **UtoncladeExtde” THE ELECTRIC STORAGE BATTERY CO. 1888 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 1911 New York Boston Chicago St. Louis Cleveland Atlanta Denver Detroit San Francisco Toronto Portland, Ore. Seattle Los Angeles 715 *Extde” Distributors Free **Ex{de"" Inspection Corps “Extde”” Depots in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Denver and San Francisco comicbooks.com