Time Clocks and Time Recorders

Clocking in began with a key. Willard Bundy's 1888 time recorder printed each worker's number and the hour on paper tape, and its makers grew into IBM.

What a time clock is

A time clock, or time recorder, is a clock that prints a record of when something happened, most often when a worker arrived and left. Instead of a timekeeper writing names in a book, each employee makes the record themselves by turning a key, setting a pointer or pushing a card into a slot, and the machine stamps the time.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History explains the point plainly: workplace managers used the stamped times of arrival and departure for payroll. The same kind of machine has been used to time other things too, from factory jobs to tram drivers' runs.

Willard Bundy's key recorder

The first widely used design came from Willard L. Bundy of Auburn, New York, a jeweler and inventor. His patent for a time recorder was filed on August 3, 1887, and granted on November 20, 1888. Its stated aim was to have employees record their own arrival without a watchman or timekeeper.

The patent describes how it worked. Each worker had a personal key whose lug differed in length or shape from every other key. Turning it in the keyhole set a row of type wheels to that worker's number, while a separate type wheel, driven by the clock, showed the hour. As the key was released, a spring drew a platen against the paper, with an inked ribbon in between, printing number and time together, and the paper and ribbon moved on ready for the next person. A gate over the keyhole, lifted by cams on the clock's hour wheel, could limit the times when recording was possible.

Bundy and his brother Harlow began making the recorders in downtown Binghamton, New York, in 1889, as the Bundy Manufacturing Company, according to the Bundy Museum of History and Art. By the turn of the 20th century, it says, thousands of workers around the world were clocking in on Bundy machines. IBM's own history dates the Bundy Key Recorder to 1888, the year of the patent.

Dial and card recorders

Rival designs appeared quickly. IBM's history says Alexander Dey introduced his dial recorder in 1888. The Smithsonian has a dial time recorder of about 1912, built on Dey's 1888 patent, that once hung in a New York City garment-district factory. Its rim has a numbered hole for each employee; a worker swings a pointer to their number and presses it in, and the machine prints the time on a sheet and rings a bell. A two-color ribbon prints regular hours in green and lateness, early departures and overtime in red. The museum says such a recorder could log up to 150 employees.

The time card came a few years later. IBM says Daniel M. Cooper's Rochester Recorder, patented in 1894, was the first card-based attendance system, with a card that had seven spaces, one for each day of the week. The Smithsonian's International Time Recording Company clock of about 1915 works the same way, stamping arrival and departure times on a card.

See also: telling 9 a.m. from 9 p.m. at a glance on the 24-hour clock on OnlineClock.app.

From time clocks to IBM

The time recorder business is one of the roots of IBM. According to IBM, the International Time Recording Company was founded in 1900 by George W. Fairchild, who became its president, and it moved from Binghamton to Endicott, New York, in 1907. In 1911 it merged with two other firms to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. The Smithsonian notes that the business emerged in 1924 as International Business Machines, and the Bundy Museum likewise says that by 1924 Harlow Bundy's company had grown into IBM.

Time products stayed in IBM's catalog for decades. In 1914 the company offered clients attendance and job recorders, clock systems and other time equipment. By 1958, IBM says, its Time Equipment Division made up less than 3 percent of gross revenue, and Thomas J. Watson Jr. arranged its sale to the Simplex Time Recorder Company, judging that its products had become less compatible with the company's larger businesses.

Punching the Bundy

The Bundy name outlived the company. The Tramway Museum Society of Victoria says the trademark became a generic word for a time recording clock in Australia, much as Hoover did for vacuum cleaners, and it reproduces a 1943 photograph captioned Punching the Bundy clock.

Melbourne's trams used the key system for much of the 20th century. Each driver got a Bundy key embossed with the depot letter and run number, inserted it into a clock at a timing point, usually an end-of-section tram stop, and gave it a quick twist, pressing a paper tape against the key to print the time and run number. Inspectors wound the clocks, collected the tapes and took them back to the depot to check whether trams had run on time.

The museum's history gives a sense of how long the system lasted. A 1917 letter offering to buy redundant Bundy clocks from the Hawthorn Tramways Trust shows they were already in use by then, a Bundy clock was restored in 2006 to mark 100 years of electric trams in Melbourne, and in 2007 one clock was still in service at the Arts Centre stop on St Kilda Road.

How to recognize the main types

The three early designs are easy to tell apart. A key recorder, Bundy's type, has a keyhole and prints onto a paper tape inside the case. A dial recorder, Dey's type, has a large wheel of numbered holes beside the clock dial and a pointer that swings round to each worker's number. A card recorder has a slot for a time card, which comes out stamped with the time in the right space for the day. Some were substantial pieces of furniture: the Smithsonian's International Time Recording factory clock of about 1915 stands about 46 1/2 inches tall.

See also: other clocks designed for one particular job on OnlineClock.app.

Keep exploring

Sources

1. Time-Recorder, U.S. Patent 393,205, Willard L. Bundy (Google Patents)
2. The International Time Recording Company (IBM History)
3. International Dial Time Recorder Clock (National Museum of American History)
4. Time clock, International Time Recording Company (National Museum of American History)
5. History of the Bundy Museum (Bundy Museum of History and Art)
6. Keeping time: Bundy clocks on Melbourne's trams (Tramway Museum Society of Victoria)