Life, 1923-11-15 · page 39 of 40
Life — November 15, 1923 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon or satire** — it's a straightforward automobile advertisement from an early 20th-century issue of *Life* magazine. The page advertises the Stearns-Knight automobile, a six-cylinder coupe manufactured by the F. B. Stearns Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The ad emphasizes the vehicle's use of a "Knight Sleeve-valve Engine," which the text claims was favored by European royalty for its reliability and precision engineering. The marketing strategy positions Stearns as a quality manufacturer willing to limit production to maintain craftsmanship standards — contrasting with mass-produced competitors. The ad claims twelve years of success and now promises affordability alongside luxury. The illustration shows a side-profile drawing of the coupe in typical period automotive advertising style. There is no satire or political commentary present; this is purely promotional content typical of *Life* magazine's advertising section during the automobile's early commercial era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
STEARNS-KNIGH PE Six Cy tinperR Coupe Bui_t with THE DELIBERATION or Otp Wor.Lp CRAFTSMANSHIP EARS ago Knight-type Motor Cars became the choice of Euro- pean Royalty because old-world craftsmen built this famous engine so perfectly that trouble was seldom if ever experienced. When The F. B. Stearns Company became the first organization in America to adopt the Knight Sleeve- valve Engine, this Company deter- mined to hold production to a minimum until such time when it could develop men and machinery to manufacture Knight-type Motor Cars in large numbers and. still maintain the extreme precision which has given the Sleeve-valve Engine its world-wide reputation for silence, power, and unequalled durability. THE F. B. STEARNS COMPANY, After twelve years of unparalleled success in the pioneering and build- ing of Knight-type automobiles, The F. B. Stearns Company has now reached the point where it is able to produce these remarkable cars in quantities and at a price that cannot purchase elsewhere an equal amount of style, comfort, and economical motor car transportation. We invite you to visit the nearest Stearns Dealer at your earliest con- venience and ask that one of the beautiful new Stearns Sixes or Fours Or, write direct to the factory for descriptive catalog and name of the nearest be demonstrated to you. dealer. CLEVELAND, OHIO Sleeve ValveMOTOR CARS FOUR AND SIX CYLINDER MODELS comicbooks.com