Life, 1919-03-06 · page 33 of 42
Life — March 6, 1919 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon but a commercial advertisement** for Goodyear tires, specifically their "Heavy Tourist Tubes." The page uses a visual analogy to make its sales pitch: the photograph shows massive industrial gas bags/dirigible envelopes alongside an airplane, illustrating Goodyear's expertise in balloon and airship construction. The headline "Both Are Goodyear Tubes" draws a parallel between these aeronautical containers and automobile tire tubes. The argument is straightforward marketing logic: if Goodyear successfully builds pressure-resistant bags for balloons and dirigibles (complex inflation challenges), their principles logically apply to tire tubes, which must also reliably contain air. The text emphasizes durability, multiple rubber layers, and superior construction. This reflects early 20th-century consumer culture, where manufacturers leveraged technological prowess in one field to build brand trust in another. The dirigible reference dates this to roughly the 1920s-1930s, when airships represented cutting-edge technology.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
teal fer ie wretched Out agais 1s, Canset, BOTH ARE GOODYEAR TUBES YODYEAR’S ability to build tubes that last long and hold r unfailingly is dramatically related to the fact that Good- car < also a successful manufacturer of balloons and dirigibles. There is sound basis for such assertion. Both tubes and gas present problems of inflation. For sine years, Goodyear has pioneered the furthering of aeronautics in this country. In constructing these giant vas bags the problem of inflation is exceedingly complex. For the gas of the balloon is more elusive than air; harder to hold within rubber. But jt has been conclusively established that stout, light fabric, impregnated with rubber and bui/t up laver-upon-layer, elusive gas. ¢ this forms the most practical container Is it not quite logical, therefore, that this same fuili-up prin ciple of construction should be successfully applied to tubes whose sole function it is to hold air? Goodyear Heavy ‘Vourist ‘Tub © built on this principle and their valve-patch is vxdcanizea-in. Built up as they are with several plies of pure gum, they are the best air con- tainers we know of. ‘There are thousands of passenger-car owners who use Heavy Tourist Tubes usively, gladly paying the slightly added cost in the firm belief that they thus protect and get more mileage from their tires. More Goodyear Tubes are used than any other kind, ‘THE GOODYEAR ‘TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY, AKRON, OHIO I rift comicbooks.com