San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-12-09
A NEW DEVICE.
For Recording The Letter Carriers
Hours of Duty.

Hours of Duty.
From the Boston Advertiser.
To hear a gong in colse proximity
to ones desk strike 5000 times in a
day of eight hours might be sufficient
to drive some people crazy. Howev-
er, Supt. Mark Field of the city deliv-
cry lin the big postoffice building) so
far seems to preserve the use of all
his faculties marvelously well.
The ringing of the gong is occasion
ed by the new clock arrangement just
put in by the government. Uncle
Sam now has no less than three differ
ent checks upon the letter carrirs con-
nected with the Boston office, and it,
therefore, seems impossible that one
of them should be able to defraud by
charging for overtime.
In the first place there is n time
keeper whose sole duty it is to note
the time when each of the 155 carriers
arrives in the morning, and when each
goes out on his route, and when each
returns, on all of the various deliver
les.
The second means of determining
accurately the exact number of hours
of duty performed is the trip report
which each carrier is obliged to file
at the end of each day. This report
reads, ''Daily trip report of the actual
time consumed by -, carrier No.
"
81, -, letter carrier No. --,
at Boston, Mass, hereby certify that
the time is herein correct and covers
all time consumed by me this day
in the performance of my official du
ties or other postal service.
(Signed) -"
This portentous document is presery-
ed for the space of six years, and as
1876 of these have to be filed every day
considerable space in the pOstoffice
is required to preserve so much bulky
matter. Each trip report shows the
time arrived, the time the carrier star
ted out, and the time he returned on
each and every trip. The reason it
is preserved six years is because that
is the limit Of time in which claims,
for salary can be filed before the court
of claims.
on what the letter carriers are doing
is the clock service just put in. On
the wall, in the passage near the desk,
of the city delivery superintendent,
are two clocks, the dials appearing
exactly like those of ordinary time
pieces and at a distance the observer
might suppose that he was looking
upon an ordinary eight-day wall
clock about 3 feet long by inches
wide, but as he comes nearer he finds
that the lower half of each clock con-
tains a peculiar arrangement with a
keyhole.
Also on the wall are two keyboards,
and a set Of 155 keys, one key for each
carrier.
When the carrier arrives in the
morning he takes the key from one
board, which is known as the "Out-
board" inserts it in the keyhole of
the first clock and turns it. One ward
of the key contains an impression, die
sunk, of the carriers number, and
as he turns the key in the lock, his
number is stamped on a tape, and al
so the time, and at the same time a
gong rings. He then hangs the key
upon the 'in-board" and goes to his
| desk.
When he starts on his first delivery
he takes the key from the ''in-board,"
inserts it in the keyhole Of the out
"clock" and the number Of the key
and the time are stamped on the tape
within just as they were on the other
| clock. When he returns he repeats
this performance upon the first clock.
1t would seem pretty difficult under
such conditions for any carrier to
cheat the government.