"Babe, turn on my bookreader and grab me a cigar."

In April 1935, Everyday Science and Mechanics imagined a future where people would read books and newspapers from microfilm instead of printed pages. Microfilm!

The proposed home reading machine used tiny photographs of pages, enlarged them, and displayed them on a screen.

The whole setup sat on an adjustable stand with a built-in lamp, focus controls, and a button for moving from one page to the next.

At the time, the idea seemed pretty logical as a futurist idea. Microfilm was pretty much seen as a practical way to store huge amounts of printed material, and that same year The New York Times began preserving its daily editions on film. The microfilm trend lasted a long time too. My library still has a microfilm reader.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-ipad-of-1935-115653218/

Original illustration with the article: