Life, 1913-03-06 · page 71 of 72
Life — March 6, 1913 — page 71: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satire page**, but rather a **commercial advertisement** for Peerless Motor Trucks, published in *Life* magazine. The image shows a silhouetted truck loaded with flowers or plants, emphasizing the vehicle's cargo capacity. The ad's purpose is to sell industrial trucks (3-ton, 4-ton, and 5-ton models) by highlighting their durability through "scientific heat treatment" of steel components. The rhetoric appeals to business owners seeking reliable commercial vehicles for "sustained hard service"—the phrase appears multiple times to stress reliability and longevity. The Peerless Motor Car Company, based in Cleveland, Ohio, positions heat-treatment technology as an invisible but crucial advantage over competitors. This represents typical early 20th-century industrial advertising: emphasizing manufacturing precision and material science rather than style or price.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
3-Ton 4-Ton 5-Ton ofl u id TOR TRUCKS For Sustained Hard Service BACK of the accurate machine work on the steel parts of a Peerless Truck is something far more vital — Scientific Heat Treatment. Accurate machining is lost if the steel fails. It is heat treatment that makes the teeth of a Peerless gear glass-hard while the core remains tough; it is heat treatment that makes a Peerless sprocket almost wearproof without being fragile. It is heat treatment that puts into every Peerless Truck a merit that no eye can see —the ability to meet sustained hard service for the maximum period of time. Dealers in all prominent cities The Peerless Motor Car Company Cleveland, Ohio comicbooks.com