JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

This design screams out –yes, the “outside scream”–for attention of some sort.  It is a five square inch ad crowded into a crowded 140 square inch page in a supplemental section to Harper’s Weekly, August 3, 1872.  The circular part is less than two inches in the original but it commands the big page, and is about the only thing your eyes can focus on until the ad is at least acknowledged and/or read. 

The ad is for the “Reactionary Lifter”, an uninspired and slightly cumbersome name for an exercise apparatus that was made of hydraulics and pull-me devices that used the person’s own weight to exercise against.  The machine itself doesn’t seem that interesting, though the price does. At $100 it would take the average machinist or a similar skilled job probably a year to save a hundred dollars while making $10/week and then removing expenses, so this exercise machine was a significant expense. There is no mention of a price in the Harpers placement, which I guess was a good move so as not not frighten off the casual reader. 

In any event, I liked the graphic.