We did it!
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This looks a LOT like a 1930s radio, combined with a microfilm viewer, which was very much available at libraries everywhere in the 1930s (and can still be found in archives today).
wrote on last edited by [email protected]A microfilm viewer is definitely the inspiration, but is this 1930s? It looks more like 1950s to me. Even then, notice that the thing holding the screen is huge. I can't find an image of a definitively 1930s one, but I did find this proof of concept for a home one from 1935. Pretty different form factor.
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Microfiche was a thing when I was in elementary school in the 80s. They taught us to use that and to use the Dewey Decimal System. Cue the meme of the guy holding the “I learned cursive for no reason,” sign.
I’ve been typing for so long that I have the handwriting of a child. It was never terribly legible. Now it’s like I’ve had a stroke.
Anyway, cool throwback.
If a throw down on cool and even more old and useless skills learned in schools is what you want, I'm for today. Not only did I need to learn learn about the Dewey Decimal System and cursive hand writing, (as a lefty I was nearly forced to learn to write right handed in school), but I had to learn how to use a slide rule. Calculators weren't around until I was about 17. Now everyone carries one and can't do any math.
Television as a working concept was solidly in place by the 1920s. They just needed to agree on a standard, make the tech cheap enough, and get broadcast stations built. Had WW2 not interrupted things, we might have had television as a bigger commercial thing sooner than the 1950s/1960s. The clipping does look like the style of Popular Science or Popular Mechanics of the 1930's era though.
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It’s still a thing. I gotta listen to my granddad regularly that he wishes the internet was more like the teletext.
My mother sent me a screenshot from teletext the other day.
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A microfilm viewer is definitely the inspiration, but is this 1930s? It looks more like 1950s to me. Even then, notice that the thing holding the screen is huge. I can't find an image of a definitively 1930s one, but I did find this proof of concept for a home one from 1935. Pretty different form factor.
I don't think they had passenger dirigibles in the 1950s, they were phased out earlier. They crashed and burned too much.
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Teletext! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext
I think it was more of a thing outside of the US. It looks cool though.
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Teletext! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext
I think it was more of a thing outside of the US. It looks cool though.
I still remember some of the channels used. Vaguely, but still. News, which time a program is on, and when you're alone in the room, checking out the naughty adverts, as there might even be rudimentary boob graphics in the style of old Nokia logos.
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Teletext! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext
I think it was more of a thing outside of the US. It looks cool though.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]It's still a thing here in the Netherlands. You can even download the Teletext app and browse the news that way on your phone. Some people like it because it drops all the bullshit and just gives you the news. No ads, no long essays, just short summaries of the most important information.
It looks like this:
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I don't think they had passenger dirigibles in the 1950s, they were phased out earlier. They crashed and burned too much.
What does a passenger dirigible have to do with anything?
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What does a passenger dirigible have to do with anything?
Headline: "Dirigible downed at sea".
Onlooker: "Hm, 20 dead and 15 missing."
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Headline: "Dirigible downed at sea".
Onlooker: "Hm, 20 dead and 15 missing."
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Ohh, now I get what you're talking about. I was referring to this picture looking 50s rather than 30s:
The OP image is established to have been drawn in 1934.
