Life — November 9, 1922 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page is **entirely an advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. It promotes the Mimeograph and Mimeoscope—office copying and reproduction machines made by A.B. Dick Company of Chicago and New York. The ad uses metaphorical language ("new worlds," "explorers") to describe business applications. It claims these machines enable rapid reproduction of documents (5,000 copies hourly), reduce labor costs, and allow simultaneous printing of typewritten or handwritten content on single sheets. The oval photograph at top appears to show the machinery itself, though details are unclear in this reproduction. This represents early 20th-century office technology marketing—positioning copying machines as revolutionary business tools that would modernize and accelerate workplace productivity.