Life, 1916-12-07 · page 7 of 94
Life — December 7, 1916 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **commercial advertisement**, not a cartoon or satire. It announces the White Company's new "Sixteen Valve Four" automobile engine, marketed as combining high performance with four-cylinder simplicity. The ad emphasizes engineering innovation—specifically that superior performance comes from increased valve capacity rather than multiplying cylinders, a notable technical claim for the era. The White Company, based in Cleveland, promises features like power, speed, hill-climbing ability, and silent operation. A seven-passenger touring car is priced at $4,600. The ad notes that complete displays of new White models with custom bodies will debut at New York and Chicago automobile salons, with January deliveries beginning. This is purely a product advertisement with no satirical or political content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-CHRISTMAS LIFE - Announcing THE WHITE SIXTEEN VALVE “FOUR” 4 NEW TYPE OF MOTOR Combining Utmost Performance With Four-Cylinder Simplicity & TEADY concentration by White engineers upon the possibilities of four-cylinder design has developed a new type of ‘‘Four,’’ with power and flexibility beyond anything, we believe, so far produced in any type of engine. Performance exceeds all expectation. Power, speed, pickup, flexibility, easy hill climbing, silent operation, have all been developed to the highest degree by increas- ing the number of valves wrthout multiplying cylinders. Maximum performance has been combined with the manifest advantages of a simple, rugged engine. The new motor establishes the fact, long foreseen by White engineers, that the secret of superior performance lies in valve capacity adequate to piston displacement. This accomplishment was foreshadowed by The White Com- pany two years ago when announcing its determination to adhere permanently to the four-cylinder motor, and is backed by a manufacturing record whose conservatism has never deviated from a consistent path of fundamental improvement. Seven-passenger touring car, $4600. 4 complete display of new White models with custom-designed bodies will be first shown at the New York and Chicago Automobile Salons. Deliveries begin in January. THE WHITE COMPANY CLEVELAND comicbooks.com