Life, 1928-02-02 · page 3 of 38
Life — February 2, 1928 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not satire or political commentary**—it's a straightforward **advertisement for Timken Tapered Roller Bearings**, a mechanical component manufacturer based in Canton, Ohio. The cartoon depicts a salesman demonstrating how bearings function within automotive parts (transmissions, differentials, wheels, steering mechanisms). The illustration shows multiple figures examining a cutaway car chassis to understand bearing placement and importance. The ad's messaging targets business/industrial readers: it argues that specifying Timken bearings ensures vehicle durability and performance across critical stress points. The phrase "character of the design" emphasizes engineering reliability. This represents typical 1920s trade advertising in *Life* magazine, which published both humor and industrial marketing alongside satirical content. The cartoon style simply made technical information more visually engaging for contemporary readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HIS is what the salesman does for you when he informs you of the Timken Bearings in his job. Indeed he tells you more than you would know if he did take things to pieces for you. The presence of Timken Bearings tells you that you are getting, the utmost durability in precisely those parts which have the final re- sponsibility for carrying the motion. Timken responsibility covers not only friction and vertical strains, but side-thrust and shock and speed and compactness and simplicity, i.e., the character of the design and performance. Transmissions, differentials, pinions or worms, rear wheels, front wheels, steering, pivots and fans are kept runnin like new by Timken Bearings. THE TIMKEN ROLLER BEARING CO., CANTON, OHIO ‘Ure: veg re 598 Madison Ave. N. Y., tl mids ‘2nd Class Matter, Ye Ore uader set of Man, in U.8.A. Bard as 204 Class Life Pab. Co, it 0-8, baglesd and Briss Posscaiesat comicbooks.com