Life, 1918-01-03 · page 6 of 40
Life — January 3, 1918 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon or satire** — it's a straightforward product advertisement from *Life* magazine for the **Mimeograph**, a copying machine made by the A.B. Dick Company (Chicago and New York). The image shows a man operating an early mimeograph machine, with text promoting its business benefits: it can produce 5,000 copies of letters or forms per hour "at almost no cost." The ad emphasizes labor-saving and cost-reduction advantages for offices and businesses during what it calls "strenuous days" — likely referencing post-WWI industrial America when efficiency improvements were commercially attractive. The advertisement offers a free instructional booklet ("W") addressing "present labor emergencies," suggesting workforce management concerns of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
One pair of clean hands will get out on the new mimeograph five thousand copies of a letter or form in an hour—at almost no cost. ’ Look to your printing, bills these strenuous days! e mimeograph has solved many immediate problems for others—and it will for you. It clarifies and speeds up routine—makes easier the trainin, of new workers and the management of old ones—eliminates delays—saves countless dollars on costly printing—and opens up new and profitable approaches to customers and employees. It prints illustrations without cuts. Notype to set up and distribute. Quiet and clean—it delivers brilliant, finely-printed duplicates. Our interesting, booklet “W”" suggests many ways to meet present labor emergencies. Ask forit—now. A.B. Dick Company,Chicago—and NewYork. LEEEOUESGEA ML ACERT fi am nn i