Life, 1919-04-03 · page 16 of 60
Life — April 3, 1919 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is an **advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. It appears on page 540 of *Life* magazine and promotes the "Mimeograph" machine by A.B. Dick Company. The ad uses militaristic language to market a copying device: describing it as a "machine gun of business" and a "weapon of offense—and defense" in the "battle for better business." This reflects early-20th-century advertising's tendency to use war metaphors for commercial competition. The image shows a hand operating the mimeograph's trigger mechanism. The ad emphasizes the machine's practical benefits: rapid reproduction of documents (5,000 copies/hour), cost savings, and ability to duplicate drawings and forms. For modern readers, the aggressive "warfare" framing of business competition—and the casual weaponization metaphor—is notably dated marketing rhetoric.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Shoot! By this touch of the hand is the machine gun of bust- ness fired. Its rapid and accurate delivery of well-printed sheets makes it the highest type equipment for front rank fighting 1 in the battle for better business. Every year it is sav- ing thousands of dollars in thousands of com- mercial and educational institutions. Because it reproduces drawings, maps, and designs by a simple tracing process, at the rate of five thousand perfect copies an hour, it enables many new kinds of advance work to be done— It duplicates all kinds privately —quickly—easily—cheaply of forms and form-letters at lowest possible cost. A quick Get our new booklet ‘“W” weapon of offense—and defense today—from A. B. Dick Company, Chicago—and New York iain Aan POH an ee