The Invention of the Time Clock

In almost every occupation, when at work, we punch in and we punch out, we use a time clock to determine how long we have been on the job. These days’ computers have taken the place of the time clock, but it was thanks to the industrial revolution that keeping track of workers time became necessary. Before factories became the key source for employment in the country most people were paid a dollar a day and worked from sun up to sun down.

On November 20, 1888, Willard Bundy, a jeweler from New York, invented the time clock and a year later started mass producing them. As more and more factories had more and more workers making an hourly wage, not a daily wage, keeping track of workers time became necessary. Probably the most famous time clock is Thomas Edison’s, after his death they found the last time he clocked out at was 7:10 am.