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).
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.
That is an impressively accurate-looking future TV for something drawn in 1934. TVs of the time looked something like this:
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).
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.
What does a passenger dirigible have to do with anything?
Headline: “Dirigible downed at sea”.
Onlooker: “Hm, 20 dead and 15 missing.”
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.