Life, 1921-06-09 · page 4 of 38
Life — June 9, 1921 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is **advertising, not satire or political cartoon**. It's a Mimeograph machine advertisement from the A. B. Dick Company (Chicago and New York). The ad uses an extended metaphor comparing a bell's peal to a typewriter's output and Mimeograph duplicates—all supposedly similar in quality. The ornate oval photograph shows a large bell, illustrating the "one peal of a great bell" opening line. The advertisement emphasizes the Mimeograph's efficiency (5,000 duplicates hourly) and cost-effectiveness for "industrial and educational institutions." It claims excellent reproduction quality requires only ordinary care, not specialized skill. Readers are directed to request booklet "W-6" for more information. This reflects early-20th-century office technology marketing before photocopiers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
One peal of a great bell is as much like another as is one print of the Mimeograph like its original. The finest of workmanship is the Mimeograph’s habitual prod- uct. But one can no more get neat work from a slovenly and badly aligned typewriter than one can get excellent duplicates from a dirty and mis-managed Mimeograph. No finer reproductions of letters, forms, blanks, charts, diagrams, etc., can be made than the Mimeograph will deliver under ordinary care. But trained skill is not an essential. Five thousand exact duplicates the Mimeograph delivers an hour—and at almost negli- gible cost. Every day it is saving huge sums for industrial and educational institutions throughout the world. Let us show you how it will save for you. Get booklet “W-6” from A. B. Dick Company, Chicago—and New York. NINESERATH comicbooks.com