Creature yet again brings you a thing it found
A friend and I found this absolute tank of a timepiece at an antique store and had no clue what we were looking at. It's called a watch-clock or watchman's clock. It's like a punch clock, but you carry it. This one is an Eco Portable.
So we brought it home, watched a youtube video, and managed to pick open the small lever tumbler lock that secured the back.
And inside we found this paper disk which gave us the name of this machine, and the last day it was used, Jan 3 1941. Also that metal plate says "TIME DETECTOR" which is a fucking awesome name.
There are several subassemblies. The lever tumbler lock, the pin and tumbler lock, the punching needles, and the clock itself (which I didn't open, since it is working, and I don't know how to service clocks)
The paper disc turns in sync with the hour hand. Station keys have a projection on the shaft, opposite the teeth, which pushes one of the 10 needle levers to make a hole in the paper disk, corresponding to the number of the station.
A guard carries the watchclock to each station, picks up the tethered key and turns it in the clock. Later, the clock can be opened (making one more hole at the edge of the paper, for tamper detection) with the master key (lever tumbler one) and read to see how the user moved throughout the day.
Later I found another watchclock at a different store. Previous owner evidently didn't manage to pick the lid lock, and resorted to violence with a screwdriver.
This one seemed much newer, and would stamp a paper tape with ink. The metal plate said it should be serviced in August 1965.
Now here's the crazy bit. An article on Detex's website backs up the Wikipedia article on this. Detex was manufacturing these fully mechanical watchclocks up until the end of 2011. Some of these clock designs go back into the 19th century. In 2011 you could call Detex on an iPhone 4s and ask to buy brand new devices whose design has barely changed since the day War of the Worlds was published. And receive paper and spare parts for it until 2016, too. Talk about long-term support.
