Unusal Key

Peter Gunn

I haven’t seen one of these before - can anyone help?

oldbiscuit

Peter, I’ve never seen one either, but just making a guess,I might think it had something to do with a security time clock. The security guard would insert this key in his machine and turn it ,thereby imprinting the number on a tape in his machine? Just my 2 cents, I might be all wrong on this guess. Mark🙁smirk):

bbcci

Hey Peter, It is a night watchman’s key used to record the assigned guards visits through a series of stations. I do not know the manufacturer. Here is a link to a picture of a couple others just like yours. One of the ones pictured was used at the Midvale Steel Co. in PA.

Peter Gunn

bbcci wrote
Hey Peter, It is a night watchman’s key used to record the assigned guards visits through a series of stations. I do not know the manufacturer. Here is a link to a picture of a couple others just like yours. One of the ones pictured was used at the Midvale Steel Co. in PA.

Many thanks - I thought it was but wanted to be certain. I’ll pass on your information to the present owner.

[unknown]

Richard Phillips

Oldbiscuit is right. I have a British one. The key is attached to each place the guard must visit, he carries sealed recorder containing a paper tape, into which he inserts each key when he visits that place. The recorder has a clockwork clock to record each key’s time of use.