Life, 1919-07-03 · page 12 of 52
Life — July 3, 1919 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Mimeograph machine advertisement** from *Life* magazine, not political satire. The image shows Mercury (the Roman god, depicted with winged hat and staff) personifying the mimeograph as a swift messenger of business communications. The ad's pitch: the Mimeograph is "the winged Mercury of the business world"—the speediest way to reproduce and distribute written documents (letters, bulletins, maps, forms) from headquarters to branch offices. The metaphor suggests rapid, efficient transmission of information. The text emphasizes the machine's value in scaling business communications inexpensively, enabling "policy and...sales propaganda" consistency across enterprises. This reflects early-20th-century office technology's importance to corporate administration. The ad directs readers to request "booklet 'W'" from A.B. Dick Company, the mimeograph manufacturer, in Chicago and New York.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Language in action! Words are of little use until they have gone from their authors out to others—until they are put in action. Today the Mimeograph is the winged Mercury of the business world—the speediest transmitter of written language from the place where it has little value out to the places where it has great value. These flying wheels reproduce, with cameo-sharpness, letters, bulletins, maps, plans, forms—all to knit more closely the fabric of the enterprise, to give power to policy and per- sistency to sales propaganda. And that too at ridiculously small cost. Let us show you how language can be put into powerful action—for you and your business. Your request will bring book- let “W” from A. B. Dick Company, Chicago—and New York comicbooks. gon