Time clock
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A time clock is a mechanical timepiece used to assist in tracking the hours an employee of a company worked. This was accomplished by inserting a heavy paper card, called a time card, into a slot on the time clock. When the time card hit a contact at the rear of the slot, the machine would print day and time information on the card. This allowed a timekeeper to have an official record of the hours an employee worked to calculate and pay an employee.
The first time clock was invented in November 20, 1888, by Willard Bundy, a jeweler in Auburn, New York. A year later his brother, Harlow Bundy, organized the Bundy Manufacturing Company,[1] and began mass producing time clocks. Bundy Manufacturing, along with two other time equipment businesses, was consolidated into the International Time Recording Company (ITR).[2][3] In 1911 ITR and two other companies were merged, forming Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR), which would later change its name to IBM. In 1958 IBM's Time Equipment Division was sold to the Simplex Time Recorder Company.
The time cards usually had the workdays and time in and time out areas marked on them so that employees could "punch in" or "punch out" in the correct place. The employee was responsible to line up the correct area of the card to be punched with an indicator on the time card. Software applications offer such a system.
In the 1990s, time clocks started to move away from the mechanical version to computer based time tracking systems. On these systems, the employee either enters an employee number, swipes a magnetic striped card or uses some other device to identify the employee to the system. Based on the system being used, the employee then enters what should be recorded. This could be "punching in", "punching out", lunch breaks, reason for leaving early, or any other type of information the employer requires. Biometric time clock systems are also used that authenticate employees while "punching in/out" though scanning finger prints, palm prints, or by measuring dimensions of the hand.
- The Poughkeepsie National Guard Armory had on display one of the oldest operating time clocks, as of 1980.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- IBM Time Clocks (PDF files)
- National Museum of American History: International Dial Time Recorder Clock
- An example of a modern time clock system
- Employee Time Clock Software
- Acroprint Time Recorder
- Chronotek Telephone Time Clock
