Judge — June 8, 1929 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon humorously traces the elevator's origins to ancient times. The central image shows a massive serpent or rope mechanism stretching vertically through a classical architectural setting, with figures at various levels operating the system. The joke appears to be that what we consider modern technological innovations actually have absurdly primitive ancient precedents. Here, people are manually operating a crude pulley-and-serpent contraption to move others between levels—a comically literal, labor-intensive predecessor to the modern electric elevator. The cartoon satirizes both our tendency to overestimate modern innovation and the absurdity of imagining ancients achieving similar results through simple mechanical means. It's gentle satire on technological progress and human ingenuity across time periods.