Life, 1918-04-04 · page 31 of 40
Life — April 4, 1918 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Timken Roller Bearings advertisement**, not a political cartoon. It appears in *Life* magazine (page 567) circa 1918. The ad compares two automobiles: a 1903 Winton car driven by Alexander Winton (the vehicle's manufacturer) and a newer 1918 Winton model. The visual contrast emphasizes how dramatically automobiles have evolved—the 1903 car is primitive and skeletal by 1918 standards. The advertisement's argument is that while virtually every mechanical component has been redesigned and improved over fifteen years, Timken Roller Bearings remain unchanged because they were engineered so perfectly from the start that no improvement is possible or desirable. The ad claims surviving 1903 cars still have original Timken bearings functioning well, proving their durability. This is a marketing strategy using technological progress as a backdrop to establish brand credibility through claimed permanence rather than innovation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
This comparison of the old and the new shows Mr Alexander Winton in his 1903 Winton car. and in one of his later models. with Timken Roller Bearings. One Specification that Hasn’t Changed If you should see one of these old models on the street today, would you recognize it as the fore-runner of the impressive tour- ing car or limousine of 1918 made by the same company? So swift and sweeping has been the development of the automobile, that hardly a trace survives of the original design. Mechanical changes are as great as those in outward appearance. Motor-construc- tion, lubrication, cooling, carburetion, light- ing, starting, ignition, suspension—wherever you turn you find many radical changes. But out of sight at the points of hardest service is one important link between past and present, ‘one part so good that it could not be improved in design, one specification that is unchanged after all these years—Timken Roller Bearings. TIMKEN Cars cover greater distances now than they used to in the earlydays. They are higher-powered and carry heavier loads; but Timken Bearings stand up to all demands of road and load in modern models as perfectly as they did in the earliest ones. In fact there has never been any demand for a better bearing than Timken. And when now and then we run across a survivor of that first generation of motor-cars, we almost invariably find the original sct of Timken Bearings still in place, and giving a good account of themselves. Timken steel and Timken refinements in manufac: turing have given Timken Bearings still finer quality; but in every principle of design the bearings started right—and no improvement has been either possible or desirable. This record is so unusual, so remarkable, that you owe it to yourself to learn the reason why. You'll find it in the booklet “How Can I Tell," sent free at your request. THE TIMKEN ROLLER BEARING CO. a Canton, Ohio comicbooks.com