Time Check tag....ideas what it was used for???

[93vector]

I am posting this for a friend of mine.....he found this detecting a couple days ago. Didnt know if anyone would know what exactly it would have been used for. The top reads either Amiry's or Amry's Co. New York.

[cwdigger]

Looks like an old hotel key ring

[Bigcypresshunter]

It might be American Railways Supply Company, New York. Around 1900. Is that B&O Railroad?

Anyway, here are some check tags with the same markings. http://cgi.ebay.com.my/2-Antique-Ist...ayphotohosting

http://forum.treasurenet.com/whites/...p?topic=7081.0

[Bigcypresshunter]

Read this very good link: http://www.tagtown.net/amrysup.html I suggest to send Scott a picture. Im curious as to exactly what a "time check" is for.

Nice find.

TheAmericanRailwaySupplyCompany was founded in New York in 1891. The Hoole Manufacturing Co. and possibly E. J. Brooks were two predecessors of American Railway Supply. American Railway Supply lasted well into the 1920s. They are also very well known for making cap badges. It isn't clear when they stopped making baggage checks. Their Shell checks are prolific. I have two fairly early American Railway Supply shell checks. One is made for the Concord & Montreal RR which operated from 1889 to 1895. It is literally dated 1895 on its paper insert. It can be found on the types page. The other is from the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway, which operated between 1889 and 1900, when it was absorbed by the Baltimore and Ohio RR.

Of the three hallmarks for American Railway Supply the AM RY S. CO. NEW YORK and AM RY S. CO. N.Y are believed to be earlier than the AMERICAN RY S. CO. NY hallmark.

[Monty]

My dad use to be a night watchman for a manufacturing plant and he carried a clock around with him when making the rounds. A time check tag was attached to a key in various parts of the plant. When he came to that location he would insert the key and it would cause the time to be recorded on the clock. That way the employer could be sure the watchman was making the rounds. I think that's what a time check tag is. Monty

[Likely Guy]

I saw a number of time check tags on display in a museum in Vancouver from one of the local canneries. The tags were marked "Hindu #12" and "Jap #30" etc. The cannery bosses couldn't wrap their heads around the exotic names so the immigrant workers were given numbers. They went to work and kept their respective tags with them until the end of the day. The timekeeper could then track who was at work that day and pay them accordingly. (I.E.: Less, if you're an immigrant.)

[Bigcypresshunter]

(I.E.: Less, if you're an immigrant.)

now its reversed. Illegals are very often given job preference here in Miami but thats another subject. Its been in the media as of late.

[ivan salis]

TIME CHECKS WERE USED BY BOSSMEN --TO INSURE THAT WORKERS WERE ON THE JOB .
workers could be checked into work and out of work by showing their numbered "chits" or tags --the "hours" they worked in the rail yards loading and unloading freight were logged and paid later on payday.

also there were rail road bulls time key tag (bulls or night watchmen hired to patroll rail yard to prevent theft and hobo's from getting on trains ) had to "clock in" at time clocks using a time clock key issued to em --thus showing that they were making their rounds --rather than sleeping in a corner somewhere ---time clocks were placed 10 to 15 min apart to keep them "moving" along punching the clock -- and this made the bulls very predicable in their movements (much to the theives and hobos amusement)