Life, 1920-02-12 · page 2 of 44
Life — February 12, 1920 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is **not a cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward product advertisement for the United States Rubber Company. The ad announces a new "grainless rubber compound" for solid truck tires. The company claims that rubber's natural "grain" (similar to wood grain) causes splitting and cracking under heavy load. Their innovation eliminates this grain structure entirely, creating tires without weak points. The decorative graphic shows the company's shield logo with rolled/curled rubber imagery, emphasizing the product's durability. The tagline "United States Tires are Good Tires" concludes with claims about the company's size and reputation as "the oldest and largest rubber manufacturing company in the world." This is genuine product promotion, not satirical content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
3. at the Post Ofce 34, 17, The United States Rubber Company Announces a Grainless Rubber Compound For Solid Truck Tires The United States Rubber Company has now perfected a method of compounding rubber by means of which the grain is entirely eliminated. For years rubber manufac- turers have been experimenting to develop such a compound. It is this ‘grain’? in rubber—similar to the grain in lumber—that is largely responsible for the splitting and \ cracking of solid tires, Rubber with a grain naturally splits or pulls apart along the lines of the grain when subjected to heavy load strain and road impact. The new rubber compound without grain eliminates entirely any tendency to split, because it does away with the points where splitting starts. It has no weak spots. A solid tire made of grainless rubber compound has none of the tread defects of the ordinary solid truck tire. This new method of producing a grainless rubber com- pound, and this company’s new process of vulcanizing ( the rubber to the steel base, together have produced a | solid truck tire the exceptional quality of which has already been proven by performance. This quality is backed by the good faith of the United States Rubber Company, the oldest and largest rubber manufacturing company in the world. United States Tires : are Good Tires IZ SITE comicbooks.com