A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRUMENT OR APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE TIME AT WHICH WORKMEN ARRIVE AT AND LEAVE THEIR PLACE OF WORK AND FOR OTHER SUCH LIKE PURPOSES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Andrew Barrie, of Edinburgh, Watchmaker, for
the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRUMENT OR APPARATUS FOR
REGISTERING THE TIME AT WHICH WORKMEN ARRIVE AT AND LEAVE THEIR
PLACE OF WORK AND FOR OTHER SUCH LIKE PURPOSES."
Sealed the 20th March 1857, and dated the 24th September 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Andrew Barrie at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th September 1856.
I, ANDREW BARRIE, of Edinburgh, Watchmaker, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRUMENT OR APPARATUS
FOR REGISTERING THE TIME AT WHICH WORKMEN ARRIVE AT AND LEAVE THEIR
PLACE OF WORK, AND FOR OTHER SUCH LIKE PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of a circular box or receptacle, turning in a hori-
zontal plane upon a vertical axis. The said circular box or receptacle is
divided into a series of compartments by divisions situated radially. The said
receptacle is situated in a box or case, in the top of which is an opening, and
the workman in passing the instrument drops a ticket or check into the said
opening. The receptacle is so connected with a clock fixed in the case, that
at every hour, half hour, or other required interval of time, the receptacle is
moved through a distance equal to one of its divisions, and consequently a
fresh compartment is brought under the opening into which the ticket or check
is dropped, and indicates on examination the time at which the workman
dropped the ticket or check therein. I do not think it necessary here to
describe the particular construction of the mechanism by which the clock is
made to move the receptacle, nor the mechanism by which the receptacle
is retained securely in the position in which it has been brought by the clock.

page_text: I am aware that a divided receptacle, having a continuous motion, has been
employed for the purpose to which I apply iny Invention. The essence of
my Invention consists in causing the receptacle to move at stated intervals,
and so instantaneously that the arrival and departure of officials may be
ascertained to within a few seconds, and remaining stationary and fixed
between the said intervals.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Andrew Barrie in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd March 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
BARRIE, of Edinburgh, Watchmaker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Iler most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of
Iler reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Andrew Barrie, Her special licence that I, the said Andrew
Barrie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Andrew Barrie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED.
INSTRUMENT OR APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE TIME AT WHICH WORKMEN
ARRIVE AT AND LEAVE THEIR PLACE OF WORK, AND FOR OTHER SUCH LIKE PURPOSES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Andrew Barrie, my execu-
tors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
"
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Andrew Barrie, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:
My Invention consists of a circular box or receptacle, turning in a bori-.

page_text: zontal plane upon a vertical axis. The said circular box or receptacle is
divided into a series of compartments situated radially. The said receptacle
is situated in a box or case, in the top of which is an opening or tube, and the
workman in passing the instrument drops a ticket or check into said opening
or tube. The receptacle or divided box is so connected with a clock or time-
piece fixed on the case (by which arrangement the instrument is at once a
timepiece and workman's register), that at the hour, half hour, or other
required interval of time, the receptacle is moved through a distance equal to
any one of its divisions, and consequently a fresh compartment is brought
under the opening or tube into which the ticket or check is dropped, and
indicates upon examination the time at which the workman dropped the check
or ticket therein. The essence of my Invention consists in causing the recep-
tacle to move instantaneously at stated intervals, so that the arrival or
departure of workmen will be registered late, although they may be only a
few seconds beyond their proper time. And this rapid motion of the divided
circular box I procure by the following means:-To the great wheel of my
clock or timepiece I connect a toothed box containing a spring, which is
being continually wound up by means of said great wheel, on the arbor
of which toothed box I fix another wheel, which turns an arbor having arms,
by which the circular box or ticket cells is instantaneously moved forward
from division to division, as often as the going of the time-piece carries
forward the minute wheels and unlocks the train for that purpose. The circular
box I retain in a stationary position by means of a knee catch and spring.
As I do not wish to have a great number of divisions in the ticket re-
ceptacle, I sometimes use two sets of cells, one set of which I call the
hour cells, and the other set the minute ones, each workman in that case
having two tickets or checks to enable him to drop one into each set of cells.
I place a clock dial or watch dial or dials on any part of the machine I think
proper, and sometimes instead of making the circular box to revolve, I make
the tube or ticket conductor to go with a start at intervals, so that the tickets
drop into fixed cells or compartments.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Barrie, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
ANDREW BARRIE. (L.S.)
JAMES RAEBURN, Witness.