Life, 1912-03-07 · page 33 of 60
Life — March 7, 1912 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is an advertisement for the United States Motor Company's Columbia automobile, specifically a "Knight Motor" roadster priced at $4500. The page is not satirical but rather promotional. The quoted text from *World's Work* discusses automotive engineering—specifically predicting that gasoline engines would eventually adopt positively-driven valves (like steam engines used) rather than the less reliable valve systems of early motors. This was a technical prediction about engine evolution. The advertisement features a side-profile illustration of an open-air roadster with detailed mechanical rendering, typical of early 1900s automotive marketing. The Knight motor was a real engine type known for sleeve-valve technology. This appears to be positioning Columbia as technologically advanced during a period of rapid automotive innovation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Sooner or later the gas motor must come to posi- tively driven valves, like those of the steam engine —valves that must move when it comes their turn to do so in the cycle of events. —World’s Work. Columbia Division NEW YORK a4 United States Motor Company !7 West 61st Street