Upvote:3
Magnetometer technology certainly existed back then and could easily have been packaged in two poles like that. I'd guess that they were a fairly low-frequency resonant circuit where the field sort of just sits there between the two antennae humming quietly and happily as long as there's no metal in the middle. If metal comes through, the resonance is disrupted and the current changes. The strip-chart recorder would be displaying the current and would show a blip characteristic of the amount and type of metal and the speed of movement. I can't say for sure that that's what it is, but it certainly could be.
There would be years of testing before anything went into production and use.
OTOH, I agree that the picture looks staged.