Life, 1923-01-04 · page 4 of 44
Life — January 4, 1923 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising**, not satire or political commentary. It promotes the Mimeograph, a duplicating machine made by the A.B. Dick Company of Chicago. The advertisement uses a decorative ornamental clock face as its central image, with a silhouetted businessman seated beside it. The visual metaphor emphasizes time-saving: the headline claims blue carbon paper has saved American business "billions of golden minutes." The ad highlights practical applications—duplicating typewritten forms, printing drawings and diagrams—and appeals to cost-conscious businesses by emphasizing efficiency and affordability. The detailed text about Japanese paper sources adds credibility to the product's quality. This represents early 20th-century business automation marketing, targeting commercial enterprises and educational institutions seeking to modernize their operations.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Athin sheet of dark blue paper has saved American business men billions of golden minutes It has tremendously speeded up the world’s work. It has advanced the fine art of duplicating typewritten forms. It has cleverly engineered great short-cuts in commercial and educational institutions throughout the world. It has made possible the print- ing of five thousand exact duplicates of a letter, or other typewritten page, in an hour— forty thousand a day. It has given craftsman-like skill to untutored and inexpensive workers. It has made practical the easy printing of drawings, diagrams, etc., on mimeographed pages, thereby opening new fields. There is downright romance in the story of the blue Der- matype stencil paper, by which the mimeographing process has been expanded. From high up on the moun- tains of old Japan come the long and fluffy fibres from which it is made. . And we use bright sunlight for transforming them into tough and almost indestruc- tible stencil sheets. Let the A. B. Dick Company, makers of the Mimeograph, Chicago, send you a sample of this paper—also booklet “W-1” with information as to how the Mimeograph will save both time and money for you. comicbooks.com