Watchman’s Indicator - What is it?

[Doug Rose]

This was also at the Mt Washington Resort. What is it?....Doug

[FABphones]

That one appears to have it's faceplates (usually card) missing; to record the watchman's activities as he went on his rounds.

I've attached an image below of another, made by Western Electric.

[tubaman]

This made me curious, and a quick Google found the attached document.
It contains scans of Holtzer-Cabot catalogue pages of these and a myriad of other interesting devices.
Original link is - http://ia800704.us.archive.org/8/items/WatchmensTimeDetectorsOperatedByBatteriesOrMagnetoGenerators/CCA80223_text.pdf

[FABphones]

...a quick Google found the attached document.

A good read. Thanks for googling and attaching.

[TelePlay]

I remember watching TV shows made in the 50s (in black and white) where a watchman would be making his rounds of a large factory in the middle of the night (while the crooks avoided him) and the watchman would stop and put a key into a small box on the wall to record his presence at that, and every, check point along his route. Never showed the recording device registering his rounds check in. There must have been 10s of thousands of these recording devices in use back then given all the large manufacturing places in the industrial world that used watchmen making hourly rounds to verify security.

[paul-f]

I remember watching TV shows made in the 50s (in black and white) where a watchman would be making his rounds of a large factory in the middle of the night (while the crooks avoided him) and the watchman would stop and put a key into a small box on the wall to record his presence at that, and every, check point along his route. Never showed the recording device registering his rounds check in. There must have been 10s of thousands of these recording devices in use back then given all the large manufacturing places in the industrial world that used watchmen making hourly rounds to verify security.

Thanks for waking up those memories, John.

The system I remember most from movies and TV had the key on the wall and the watchman carried the recorder that included a clock. It was interesting to read about the system (below) and see the company's evolution into the 20th century.

(Note the last file is a .pdf with no thumbnail image.)

[Doug Rose]

Great info folks...it was a great looking piece....Doug

[TelePlay]

The system I remember most from movies and TV had the key on the wall and the watchman carried the recorder that included a clock.

Yes, Paul, your right. Watchmen in a few original Superman and a couple of original early Untouchables episodes had the Watchmen walking around with the hand carried clocks but I can't remember ever seeing them use a key on the wall to record a stop at the checkpoint. Handheld would be a lot cheaper for a company but the unit would have to be returned to see when the Watchman was at each point. The central recorder would show, to anyone in the security office, the Watchman movement in live time.

Simple, good TV way back when.