Time Recording Clock

Technical Information

Catalogue No:	C0451
Category:	Corporate/Business
Object Type:	Indicator/Instrument
Object Name:	Time Recording Clock
Part No:	Type A or B
Serial No:	40602
Manufacturer:	Gledhill-Brook Time Recorders Ltd
Division:	Unknown
Platform(s):
Year of Manufacture:	1930
Dimensions:	Width (mm): 393 Height (mm): 1,145 Depth (mm): 350 Weight (g): 30,360
Location:	Main Store

Inscription(s):

Empire G.B.T.R.Ltd

Notes:

This Clocking Machine was found in abandoned in an electricity sub-station on the Rochester site. Apparently all the really good ones had been taken to turn into miniature pendulum clocks for home use! The dial is not the original and the clocking mechanism is broken however the clock keeps excellent time and has an 8 day movement. The clock was almost certainly used when the site was Short Brothers and therefore dates to the 1930’s. The clock inscription of G.B.T.R. Ltd indicates that this machine was made by Gledhill-Brook Time Recorders Ltd. This type of clock was by far the most widely used and successful type of time recorder, the same basic design remained in use for nearly a century. The Magneta clocks were not introduced until the 1960’s
Interestingly Daniel M Cooper is credited for inventing the first card recorder which was called The Rochester in the USA in 1894.

Time Clocks

It was common practice to have a time recording system for employees which involved stamping a Time Card with the time that the employee arrived or left work. The cards were stored in numbered racks adjacent to the machines. The wages clerks would calculate the pay for employees from the information printed on each card at the end of each week.

The early machines required the employee to insert a card into a slot in a ‘Clock Machine’ and then to manually depress a lever to stamp the card; a process known as Clocking in or Out’. Later machines automatically stamped the card when it was inserted. The Clock Machine had an integral clock which had to be accurate as the early clocks were stand-alone and only when electric clocks were introduced could they be synchronised with all others on a large site.