Life — January 6, 1921 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is a **Mimeograph machine advertisement**, not a political cartoon. The page features a photograph of a man operating the device in an oval frame, with decorative borders typical of early 20th-century advertising design. The text promotes the Mimeograph as a revolutionary business tool that multiplies "man-power"—capable of producing 5,000 printed duplicates of a typewritten sheet per hour with minimal preparation time. It emphasizes the machine's utility for offices, its low cost, and its ability to reproduce diagrams and illustrations. The advertisement is from the A.B. Dick Company (Chicago and New York) and encourages readers to request booklet "W-1" for more information. This represents early industrial-era advertising celebrating mechanization's benefits to American business efficiency.