Life, 1917-10-11 · page 38 of 40
Life — October 11, 1917 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward product advertisement for automobile headlight lenses manufactured by Macbeth-Evans Glass Company. The ad promotes a new "scientific" car headlight lens with a green-tinted visor designed to reduce glare and improve road lighting. It employs common early-20th-century advertising strategy by invoking military/industrial credibility: the lens technology derives from applications in **battleships, lighthouses, and railroad signals**, establishing the product's reliability and precision. The marketing pitch emphasizes safety compliance with driving laws while appealing to car owners' vanity (appearance) and practicality. The illustration shows the lens's internal prism structure. Pricing varies by location and vehicle type (Ford models listed separately at reduced cost). This represents typical automotive accessory marketing from the 1920s-1930s era, when headlamp regulations were becoming standardized and manufacturers competed on technical sophistication.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Battleship Lens For Your Car! Get this new scientific lens with the green glass visor. It avoids wasted light and dangerous glare—complies with laws — increases safety—adds to appearance of car. All upward rays are re-directed dows on the road where needed. Wherever lives depend upon lenses, there you will find the Macheth lenses are used. For coast defense where s are used! On battleships where most rigid tests must be met! r railroad signals where highest cffi- ciency is imperative! For lighthouses where denser fogs than encountered inland must be penetrated constantly in all kinds of weather! Is your safety, driving at night, less important? archlights This world-famed lens specialty house has solved the lens problem for your car. Despite our forty years of finest lens experience, it was not until our corps of experts had devoted four years of scien- tific labor that this motor car lens was perfected, to the high standard of Mac- heth quality, Now that Macbeth has succeeded, there is no excuse for your using an inferior lens; no excuse for an only partially good lens on your car; no excuse for dangerous light to yourself and others. It gives ample light in front of car and gxcellent side light. The front surface of the lens is divided into five horizontal prisms—each inclines at an angle determined with scientific ac- These prisms bend and re-direct the rays of light so that you get a strong and loug light on the road. The concave recesses in’ the hack of the lens spread the light laterally, thus pro- viding the very essential side lighting for turning corners. ll the light, therefore, is used right. It requires seventy-two hours to build one Macbeth lens, What_other lens re- ives such skill and care? No other lens is backed by the world-wide lens experience, facilities resources. Price per pair $5—Ford Special $4 Denver and West $5.50—Ford Special $4.50—Canada $6—Ford Special $4.80 Macbeth lenses are f. sale by leading jobber accessory dealers and garages ¢ Uf your dealer cannot supply you, trite direct to us, Macbeth-Evans Glass Company, Pittsburgh Branch Offices in Boston; Buffalo; Chicago; Cincin 3 Philadelphi, Pittsburgh; San’ Francisco; Macbeth-Evens Glass Compan; PETER J. CAREY, PRINTFR