Life, 1920-01-29 · page 2 of 38
Life — January 29, 1920 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward advertisement for United States Tire Company's new solid truck tire technology, published in *Life* magazine (dated Jan 29, 1920, based on the header). The page promotes a manufacturing innovation: a bonded rubber-to-steel tire that eliminates reliance on traditional dovetail grooves. The ad emphasizes durability and cost-effectiveness, highlighting an "unlimited mileage guarantee"—apparently a novel selling point at the time. The decorative eagle emblem and patriotic language ("good faith," "oldest and largest rubber company") reflect early-20th-century advertising style, lending authority through nationalist imagery. This is period advertising copy, not satirical content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The New United States Solid Truck Tire The United States Tire Company announces a new solid truck tire made in regular, high profile and large single types. This tire embodies what is probably the most important advance in solid tire manufacture of recent years—an improve- ment which minimizes the liability of separation between the tire itself and the steel base on which it is mounted. The new process used in building the United States Solid Truck Tire formsa union between the rubber and the steel base. This eliminates the necessity of relying entirely on the mechanical bond formed by the usual dovetail grooves that hold the rubber to its base. The new United States Solid Truck Tire possesses a degree of wear-resisting power that brings solid tire costs down to the minimum. It has proved so pronounced a success that the unlimited mile- age guarantee, so popularamong buyers of other United States Tires, has been extended to cover also the Solid Truck Tires. All United States Tires—passenger car and truck—are guaranteed to be free from imperfections in materials and workmanship, with no limitation of mileage. This guarantee is backed by the good faith of the United States Rubber Company—the oldest and largest rubber company in the world. United States Tire Company United States Tires are Good Tires