Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft: Bildstatistisches Elementarwerk - Kraftwagenbestand der Erde : 1914-1920-1928 [14080.059]
The pattern
This still is filed under Data as proof.
Define
A chart, map, or count that is the argument, not an illustration next to the argument.
Mechanism
Sighted evidence. The reader is asked to believe their eyes: a bar, a share, a spread on a map.
Verdict
The claim is comparative or quantitative and the figure can be read without a caption doing the sell.
Why it works
The skyline band is a caption drawn instead of written: factory, oil, city, it names the cause of the growth and the row below it supplies the effect, so the plate argues without a sentence. One vertical rule does all the work of a stacked bar, splitting every row into American and non-American at the same position so the share is comparable down the page at a glance. The rows are set so the last one runs the full measure of the sheet, which makes the 1928 figure feel like a limit reached rather than a number. Holding the car symbol at one size across all three dates is what keeps the fourteen-year jump readable as multiplication.
Steal this when
Use this when a category went from nothing to dominant fast and one player owns most of it, so you need growth and market share in the same picture. The illustrated header band is worth stealing whenever the cause of a trend can be drawn more compactly than it can be written.