Life — June 13, 1930 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is an advertisement for the Mimeograph, a duplicating machine. The ad uses satirical language to sell the device to businesses. The heading "NEW WORLDS TO CONQUER" references astronomical discovery (mentioning Saturn), creating a metaphor: just as explorers seek new planets, businesses should "conquer" new organizational challenges using the Mimeograph. The image shows the machine itself—an early 20th-century copying device capable of reproducing written, typewritten, or drawn documents at high speed ("thousands every hour"). The satire is gentle: the ad suggests the Mimeograph solves business problems as dramatically as discovering new worlds. It emphasizes practical benefits—no trained operators needed, confidentiality, lower costs—while maintaining grandiose language about "widening your scope of action." This is straightforward product advertising using hyperbolic rhetoric common to the era.