Life, 1919-06-12 · page 31 of 46
Life — June 12, 1919 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satire page**—it's a Goodyear tire advertisement disguised as editorial content, a common early 20th-century advertising technique. The page features a testimonial from Chas. M. Gearing, Division Manager at New Departure Manufacturing (Hartford, Connecticut), praising Goodyear Pneumatic Cord truck tires. A small inset photograph shows an early motor truck, while the main image displays an enormous tire next to the vehicle for dramatic scale comparison. The "story" is pure product marketing: the company supposedly used these tires on an 18-mile route between Hartford and Bristol plants, experiencing minimal damage and repairs while averaging 50 miles daily and 10,000-12,000 miles per tire. For modern readers, this represents advertising's early deception—presenting promotional claims as objective reporting in a prestigious publication. There's no satire intended; the humor (if any) would be unintentional, stemming from the over-the-top claims and the awkwardly phrased testimonial.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
o E.use Goodyear Pneumatic Cord Truck Tires and regard this as a correct type of tire for many trucking conditions. Its cushioning minimizes vibration and jarring, means a better satisfied and efficient driver, means least repairing, slowest depreciation and real safety for loads. While increasing radius of truck action the toughness of the Goodyear Cord is well demonstrated in our service.’’ Chas. M. Gearing, Division Manager, The New Departure Manufacturing Company, Hartford, Connecticut. Among the first users of Goodyear Pneumatic Cord Truck Tires was The New Departure Manufacturing Company, Hartford, Conn., makers of automotive bearings. For a long period now a motor truck on these tires effected prompt transfers of materials, often fragile, between the Hartford and Bristol plants of this concern. Although one-half of the 18-mile route is rough and hilly, the company’s engineers state that no damage to loads has ever occurred and that truck repairs have been a decidedly small item. They also report that the cushioning and traction of the Goodyear Cords have enabled this truck to average 50 miles daily all year despite conditions such as stall or tie up solid-tired trucks—chuck holes, bad grades and heavy snows. Hard service has not prevented the rugged pneumatics from averaging 10,000 to 12,000 miles and doing so consistently, ‘This whole record, however, is by no means unusual when compared with the many other instances in which Goodyear Pneumatic Cord Truck ‘Tires have fulfilled similar hauling requirements. comicbooks.com