Timely Bling!

While I have been running around doing a million other things I am still trying to put a little time every week to finish up my last automata project. The wasps and spider web depicted in my recent  posts are part of the same project. They are all little bits of things to add a little more detail, and hopefully a little more curiosity and a touch of awe.  None of these additions have any moving components, and they are mostly just for "eye candy" for observers. I call it adding a little "Bling" to the project. 

Building this week's bit of bling seemed a lot more like building doll house furniture than building automata.  What I have added is the punch card station for the Balsam Lake Elevator Company.  For those youngsters who may be unfamiliar with this device, it  where employees record their hours  of work by removing their personal punchcard from the rack  on the left side, and sticking their into the clock to be stamped with their arrival time and then placing into the RACK on the right . At the end of the day they stamp it again as the leave and place it back in the rack on the left. The cards on the right show who is at work and the cards on the left who is not at work. These might be people who are sick, or work the night shift for example. So what is the big deal you ask? Most importantly, at the end of the week the paymaster would come out, collect the cards, tally the time for each employee, and determines how much everyone should be paid for the week. 

My very first job had just such a system! Oh, the fond memories of the antics, conversations and ribbing that went on while we stood lined up, waiting for the clock to register quitting time. Then the mad dash  as everyone raced to punch out and  be the first into the parking lot and out the gate!

This latest piece of "bling"  should be a pretty good clue as to what the main theme of the automata is if you have figured it out already from previous clues!  A few more bits to go and I'll get to the big reveal!