Life, 1923-04-05 · page 39 of 40
Life — April 5, 1923 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **corporate advertisement** for Western Electric, not political satire. The page uses ethnic and national stereotypes to illustrate global supply chains for telephone components. Each illustrated figure represents a raw material source, identified by nationality: - British Indian (mica insulation) - Brazilian (rubber for receiver) - Japanese (silk cord covering) - Russian (platinum) - Egyptian (cotton insulation) - Irish (flax for paper condenser) - Pennsylvanian (coal for vocal cords) - Alaskan (gold) The implicit message: modern technology depends on international resources and workers. The photograph shows an actual Chicago factory worker—the "workman at Chicago"—who assembles these globally-sourced materials. For modern readers, the caricatured depictions reflect period advertising conventions that would be considered offensive today. The advertisement celebrates industrial achievement and global commerce while emphasizing Western Electric's role as coordinating these diverse inputs into finished products.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Brazilian. He drains rubber a fromatree. Rub- Aswarthyminer ber forms the of mica—insula- case of the re- tion inside the ceiver. telephone. hese men made your telephone British Indian. Japanese. Pre- pares the silk used in the cov- ering on the telephone cord. Lrishmant. from whic! \ linen paper — used ~ » in the condenser, “Sm “in Russian, He *, = 7 mines the noble a metal, platinum, j) Egyptian. We must used in your tele- go to the Nile Val- phone. ley for certain cot- tons used to insu- late wires. \y —and the workman ; at Chicago ROM aslab of rubber, a bundle of vegetable and animal fibres and a curious medley of minerals brought from every corner of the world, this man’s skill produces a marvel of precision and ruggedness—your telephone. He ts one of 28,000 men and women at the Western Electric works in Chicago. As makers ihe CON of telephones and the countless items of tele- DANS “Sy phone apparatus, they are setting the standard yivanian coal y \ ‘a for the whole world. Amidstrange scenes Boe ot 4 > in strange lands, the coal, inside the icturesque types i Ii E hj pic que typ t marae ae the Se, Wes, dq | yas Te J v{ above are gathering vocal cords of your 5 t ma- telephone. y Alaskan. Your tele- . . . terials needed ee phone needs gold too, Since 1869 Makers of Electrical Equipment . make your tele- and here’s the man : aa 5 z ; phone. who digs it. No. 2 of a series on raw materials. comicbooks.com