Linear Chronology, Exhibiting the Revenues, Expenditure, Debt, Price of Stocks and Bread, from 1770 to 1824
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
Seven series on one frame would normally be unreadable; it works because every line is named on itself, repeatedly, so the reader can re-identify any curve from wherever the eye happens to land. The war bars are a second, categorical layer laid over the continuous one, which turns a record into a causal argument without a sentence of prose. The explanation panel handles mixed units honestly by declaring each one rather than forcing everything onto a single false axis. The extreme aspect ratio compresses ordinary movement into a flat line, so the wartime spikes are the only things with vertical drama left.
Steal this when
Use when several different metrics have to share one timeline and the point is that outside events moved all of them together. Band the events across the top, name each series on the series, and declare mixed units in a small panel instead of faking a shared scale.