Life, 1919-01-02 · page 4 of 34
Life — January 2, 1919 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising, not satire or political content**. It's a vintage advertisement for the Mimeograph machine, manufactured by A.B. Dick Company (Chicago and New York). The ad claims the mimeograph saves "millions of dollars" for American businesses by duplicating typewritten letters and forms efficiently. It highlights a new innovation: the "Dermatype stencil"—a thin dark-blue paper that allegedly allows finer, faster, cheaper printing while opening new possibilities for industries. The oval photograph shows the mimeograph machine itself. The ad uses urgent language ("At this crucial time") to encourage businesses to investigate the device's capabilities, offering to send information and catalogs upon request. This represents early-20th-century office technology marketing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*T would be hard to reckon the millions of dollars that this little machine is saving for American business. Always a quick and economical way of duplicating all kinds of typewritten letters and forms! But with the arrival of the new Dermatype stencil—‘‘a thin sheet of dark-blue paper” —the Mimeograph becomes tremendously more useful. It does finer work. And, as the new stencil is prac- tically indestructible, it does quicker work—and cheaper. Also it easily prints maps, plans, designs and the like— opening new possibilities for development. In thousands of American industries the Mimeograph is now effecting -sential economies. Cogitate! At this crucial time don’t think it worth while to investigate what it can do and your business? All information—and catalog ~ A. B. Dick Company, Chicago—and New York. a a