The Bundy Manufacturing Company was a 19th Century American manufacturer of time keeping devices that went through a series of mergers, eventually becoming International Business Machines. The company was founded by the Bundy brothers.
Willard L. Bundy was born in 1846 in
Otsego
,
NY
. His family later moved to
Auburn
,
New York
, where he worked as a jeweler and invented a time-recording clock in 1888. He later obtained patents of many mechanical devices. However, he split with his brother and business associates about these patents, wanting to keep them for himself and his family. He moved to
Syracuse
and purchased the Dey Time Recording Company, later renaming it the International Time Recording Company. This company later failed.
Harlow E. Bundy was born in 1856 in
Auburn
,
NY
. He was a graduate of
Hartwick
College
. He died after retiring from business in 1915 in 1916 in
Pasadena
,
CA
.
The two brothers established the Bundy Manufacturing Company in 1889, in
Binghamton
,
New York
. The clock was supposed to eliminate the need for time keepers and watchmen, who would be required to insure that workers were diligent in performing their work. The original Bundy Manufacturing Company employed less than a dozen workers.
The Bundy Manufacturing Company relocated to
Endicott
,
New York
in 1900. They merged with the Frick Manufacturing Company and the Standard Time Stamp Company. They acquired the Chicago Time Register Company. Then known as the International Time Recording Company, they acquired the Del Ray Register Company and the Syracuse Time Recording Company. In 1911, they became the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. In 1924, the company was renamed International Business Machines.
