Life, 1914-02-26 · page 27 of 40
Life — February 26, 1914 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satire** — it's a straightforward **automobile advertisement** from Life magazine (page 363). The Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO) promotes three innovations they claim revolutionized automobiles: the gasoline engine, pneumatic tires, and crucially, their own electric cranking and lighting system. The advertisement argues that while the gasoline engine and pneumatic tire were transformative, the **DELCO system eliminated the main barriers to widespread car ownership** — specifically, the dangerous hand-crank starting and unreliable manual lighting. By making cars easier and safer to operate, DELCO democratized automobile use for average people. The three images show the gasoline engine, pneumatic tire, and electrical starter motor. The claim that "two-thirds of all electrically cranked cars" use DELCO appears designed to establish market dominance through apparent ubiquity — a common advertising strategy. This reflects early 20th-century America's fascination with automotive technology as liberation and progress.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Sk r—DELCO ELECTRIC CRANKING LIGHTING IGNITION Three Epoch Making Steps in Automobile Development The automobile of today is an almost perfected machine. cr B Powerful, speedy, splendid in its ability to do things—yet under such complete control that it is as easy to operate as an electric carriage. There have been three epoch making steps in the development of this remarkable machine— THE GASOLENE MOTOR—We might have had motor cars without the gasolene engine. Steam or electricity might have served as the motive power—but they would not have been the splendid high powered, flexible machines that have so revolutionized our ideas of time and distance. The gasolene engine is fundamental to the automobile as we know it today. THE PNEUMATIC TIRE—But even with the gasolene engine simplified and perfected to its highest efficiency its usefulness would have been sadly curtailed had not the pneumatic tire come to make its full develop- ment possible. The pneumatic tire, too, is fundamental to the twentieth century automobile. THE DELCO SYSTEM The Delco System has been the refining influence in the development of the gasolene car. _ It has eliminated the crudities of the crank and of hand lighted lamps. It has provided an ignition that is thoroughly dependable under all sorts of operating conditions. It has furnished an always available auxiliary power that removes the danger of accident when the engine stalls unexpectedly ina tight place. It has im- measurably broadened the scope of the automobile by making it so easy and safe to operate that almost any one can readily master it. The Delco System is the pioneer in the Electric cranking and lighting field—and today two-thirds of all the electrically cranked cars in existence are Delco equi Verify this last statement for your- self—count the electrically equipped cars you see on the street. The Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, Dayton, Ohio comicbooks.com