Our August meeting started as usual with a mart, and ended with a lively auction, run by Brooks Coleman.
Our program featured Donald Jackson, who shared five wonderful examples of the clocks that keep track of who's on time and who's late. He bought them in New Zealand, and two are time recoeding clocks. An International Time Recorder was burgundy when purchased, and had to be restored to the beautiful wood beneath. This clock has a bell that sounded when punching the time card late! The hands could not be manually moved, so there could be no tampering.
Another of Donald's clocks was a National Time Recorder from England in a long case with a waterfall front. This on had a red flag that would show when punching late.
For a related yet different purpose, Donald showed a "Tell Tale" clock and two watch clocks. The "Tell Tale" clock was wall mounted, and was driven from a master clock, and had terminals for inputs from multiple stations. The night watchman would have to check in at each of these stations, and the "Tell Tales" would record the times, uniquely identifying each station. An alternative, the two Detex watch clocks were carried to stationary keys that would punch an internal paper tape, identifying time and location. The cases are locked to prevent tampering.
Donald's enthusiasm and love for these clocks was obvious. His passion gave everyone an appreciation of this horological piece of history.
The watch focus group looked at tu-tone (gold-on-nickel damaskeened) Illinois watches, of which several examples caught people's attention, including an Illinois Bunn. A variety of other pocket watches were also in the cabinet, most noticable being a very attractive enameled ladies watch.
