Thanks lutso and GrenadeKing, would you believe that "steampunk" wasn't really around when these concepts were done. The George Pal Time Machine was though. The look is due to the mechanical men of the Professors Stears story needing an older feel than the Professor's technology. I was totally floored when steampunk took off.
Here is George Pal sitting in the real-prop. It was restored by a group of fans after being badly damaged.