100 Objects #15: Bundy Clock
99% Invisible

100 Objects #15: Bundy Clock

B2Upper-intermediateAugust 28, 202637 min

In 1888, Willard Bundy created the first employee "time clock" — essentially a souped-up grandfather clock that could, for the first time, produce an accurate record of when workers arrived and left. Though Bundy’s aim was simple, his invention soon sparked a change in American life far broader than he intended. Roman Mars and reporter Ellie Lightfoot trace how the time clock not only ignited a revolution in workplace efficiency and surveillance, but transformed our relationship to time itself. A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC Studios. Subs...

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Well, before clock time, that is. In fact, there were many decades in colonial America

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 32%A2 41%B1 19%B2 8%C1 1%
  • 91% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 168 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 209 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

If you can imagine it, there was a time before time. Well, before clock time, that is. In fact, there were many decades in colonial America when most people had no earthly idea what time it was. Most people, when they keep time, they just stick a stick in the ground and call it noon.

0:20

They look for the shadows. This is Michael Malley, a historian of time. What are you going to do when it's cloudy? Well, there's animal cues.

0:29

You woke up with the rooster and at the end of the day. There's a phrase in American vernacular culture, till the cows come home. Well, the thing is cows do go back to the barn at a certain time of day.

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