Life, 1918-07-18 · page 2 of 36
Life — July 18, 1918 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Michelin Tire advertisement**, not political satire. The page promotes Michelin's "traction surface" tire technology by comparing tire wear to pencil eraser wear—small projections wear away quickly, while broad, flat surfaces last longer. The illustration shows the Michelin Man (Bibendum, their mascot) holding a wire screen against a tire's tread, demonstrating how to count contact points. The ad claims this proves Michelin tires have superior durability due to their flat traction surface. **No political or social satire is present.** This is straightforward early 20th-century advertising copy explaining a product feature to consumers, appearing in *Life* magazine alongside satirical content—a common practice of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Surface The small eraser on the end of a pencil wears away quickly as compared with an eraser that is broad and flat. So likewise the tire tread which consists of small projections wears away quickly as compared with the tread which has a broad, flat traction-surface. In the Michelin Universal three quarters of the entire tread is traction-surface. You can prove this for yourself by holding a piece of wire screen over a part of the tread and comparing the number of squares that touch the raised portion with the number that cover the portion not raised. : This is one of many reasons why Michelin Tires are unsurpassed for durability. MICHELIN TIRE COMPANY MILLTOWN, NEW JERSEY Wholesale factory branches in many important cities Dealers in all parts of the world