On October 30, 1894, Daniel M. Cooper of Rochester, New York, received U.S. Patent No. 528,223 for a “Workman’s Time-Recorder.” The device used clock-driven printing wheels, an ink ribbon, and a hand-operated lever to stamp hours and minutes onto an employee’s individual time card. Its adjustable card holder and automatically advancing stop positioned entries in the appropriate spaces for the day and part of the day.
Cooper did not invent mechanical employee timekeeping. Earlier devices, including Bundy’s key recorder and Dey’s dial recorder, had appeared in 1888. His Rochester Recorder’s distinctive contribution was its card-based approach, identified by IBM as the first such attendance-recording system. Keeping each employee’s entries together reduced the transcription required by earlier paper-tape systems and made weekly wage calculations easier.
Cooper’s patent marks an important step in the development of workplace timekeeping rather than the sudden creation of the modern workweek. Its significance lay in making attendance records more convenient to organize and use—helping develop the familiar routine of recording arrival and departure on an individual time card.
