AUTOMATIC TIME SYSTEMS FOR EVERY NEED.

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 16, 11 September 1930, Page 9

AUTOMATIC TIME SYSTEMS FOR EVERY NEED.

Time is the one common asset of all ■ r* mankind. Everything that we do, or plan to do, is based on Time, and Time is the one element that makes or mars our efforts. Its use or waste determines success or failure. If not recorded as it passes, it never can be accurately measured or utilised in any way. Tiiaae cannot be stored up. Once gone, it cannot be recalled. All profits hinge, on Time. Goods /have to be manufactured. Tthcy must be sold. Qiliee routine nmst be attended to. , The success" or failure of all ! these thirigs-r-regardless of everything else that ehteil^' into them—depends on the. efficient distribution and use of (Time. . '■■.[ ;; ':'"'-;'. ■ - ■'' ■•■'■•'>■ ','-':.,'' |To employers, Time is of tremendous ■ importance, v V - The careless handling of Time of tan entails a large .monetary loss. The efficient employment of Time broadens opportunities and increases the rewards ofbusiness; and 'industry. '|Time waste,'? says Hemry Ford in his tbpbk "To-day and To-morrow," "differs from material waste in that there can:be no salvage. The easiest of■ all wastes, and the, hardest to correct, is this waste of time, because wasted time does hot litter tiie floor like, wasted material. "In our industries, we think of time as.huma^ energy. "The time element in manufaetuTing stretches from, the moment the raw material is separated from the earth to the moment when the finished product is delivered to the ultimate consumer. It involves all forms of transportation and has to be considered in every na* tional scheme of service. It is, a method of saving and service which ranks with the application of power and division of labour." ; Every bit of material t&at comes into a, business is carefully weighed and

counted. Every invoice and statement is cheeked. Money is checked and accounted for to the last penny. All this is a necessary precaution against loss. Time is now recorded and cheeked by modern business and industry as carefully as money and materials. More money can be lost through wastes of time than in almost any other way.

Time-recording clocks have come into widespread use only within the last 20 years. They were invented in ; the United States, which is also the principal place of their manufacture.

About thirty-six years ago, t<he Hoywood- Wakefield Company said to be the largest manufacturers of chairs in the United States, if not in the world, employed from fifteen to eighten hundred men and women in their plant at Gardner, Massachusetts. ; The company decided that it was necessary to. have some means of cheeking the time of arrival and departure of their employees that; would be moTe accurate than having a time-keeper registe* tttejin as they passed through the gate* The problem of developing such a device was turned over to the company 'a consulting engineer, E. <3v Watkina, who invented and developed a time re^border that was put in operation aibout Juno 1, 1891. This machine was known as a "sheet piodel recorder." It was opexated by a marine movement; a circular dial revolved in the recorder, and this dial " was ruled off into twenty-^our spaces, representing the" hours of the day. The •recorder was a' forty-button clock. When an employee \touched a button it perforated the sheet at tie time of the registration. This first time recording machine was improved and developed as the result of its constant use, and a sheet model recorder, based on the original machine made more than thirty-five years ago, is still being mannifaotured. After the Heywootl-Wakefield Cbm/pany had equipped their plant with these recorders, some of their business (friends asked them to make recorders tfor their factories also, and in t>Ms .way a time-recorded department of the _ <eonipahy canie to be established. As. vthie' demand increased and the business grew, it was found that the making of time recording equipment did not adjust itself to the manufacturing andmarketing of chairs, and in 1901 the, time recorder department was organised into a separate company, which now manufacturers nearly one hundred different models of sheets and card recorders for both payroll and cost of keeping purposes. Correct time is the basis of all time Tecording. . ' The correct time of day is obtain?'" fay the observation of certain fixed stars which cross t-he meridian at a .known time. In the United States, observation is made by the Government ,at certain centres from which time is transmitted electrically over land i wires at noon each day to other distributing points throughout the coimtry. It is also transmitted by wire-, less .from various wireless stations, thereby making it possible- to obtain the correct time at least once a day onland and sea.. > In determining the correct time, the passage of the, star over each of several lines, which are marked on the ■! transit telescope lens, is recorded on a chronograph, as are also the second beats received electrically from a high grade, accurately adjusted master clock. By comparing these records on the. chronograph the accuracy of the master clock is determined, and proper adjust- • ments are made in the regulation of the lose if any are necessary.