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Dorotea Szkolar

              Many people are aware of the Bundy Time Recording Company of Binghamton, but little know of the W.H. Bundy Recording Company of Syracuse and its fascinating relationship to its Binghamton Rival. The scandalous rise, legal battles and fall of the W.H. Bundy Recording Company is historically significant to the history of the Bundy Brothers.

     In 1889, Harlow and Willard Bundy founded the Bundy Manufactuering Recording Company to manufacture Willard’s Workman’s Time Recorder Invention.  Tension between the two brothers began in 1900, when Willard’s son, Willard H. Bundy was discharged from the company for reasons which are unclear.

      In 1902, that same son, Willard H. Bundy was issued a patent for a new time recorder design and filed articles of incorporation for a rival Bundy Time Recorder Company with his younger brother, Royal Bundy, and his mother, Esther Sweet Bundy.  Shortly thereafter, Harlow discharged Willard Legrand Bundy claiming Willard, and not his son, was the real inventor of the patent and violated his contract with the original Bundy Company. Willard adamantly refused to recognize the dismissal, claiming he had done nothing wrong, and, according to a local newspaper, going so far as to continue to go to work and “expect[ing] to have his pay until his contract with the company expires in June, even if he has to collect it in the courts.” [1]

     In 1903, Willard Legrand Bundy severed his connection with the company. Willard, his wife and his two sons moved to Syracuse with their respective families and formally incorporated the “Bundy Time Recording Company”.[2] W.H. Bundy Recording Company, as the name was later changed to, seemed to enjoyed great success. It expanded beyond time recorders, manufacturing and marketing an automatic calculating machine in 1904.[3]

    By 1906, it perfected its Columbia Calculating Machine and began production. The machine added, subtracted and multiplied, along with printing words of the figures according to “individual requirements”. Additionally, the company expanded that year, increasing its capital stock to $500,000 and established branches in other cities.[4] The Post Standard claimed Syracuse produced half the world’s time recorders at that time and recognized W.H. Bundy Recording Company as one of the major manufactures of the area.[5]

    In October of the same year, W.H. Bundy Recording Company, along with four other Syracuse companies, served as representatives of Syracuse manufacturers and exhibited their business at the great fifth National Business show held in Madison Square Garden.[6]  In 1909, the company reported booking a record order of 200 Time Recorders between two New York City businesses.[7]

    Meanwhile, both Bundy Manufacturing Company and ITR continued to press numerous lawsuits against Willard’s and his sons’ company. The two brothers and their respective companies engaged in several legal battles from 1903 to 1907 over patent rights regarding Bundy Time Recorders, violations of Willard L. Bundy’s contract with the original company, and the use of the Bundy name to sell Time Recording Clocks.[8]

      In 1907, just a few months after Willard Legrand Bundy passed away, W.H. Bundy Recording Company was found guilty of infringing on the patents owned by Bundy Manufacturing Company of Binghamton in court.[9] W.H. Bundy Recording Company invented and patented new time recorders and continued to operate, refusing to be taken over by the Bundy Manufacturing Company of Binghamton.[10]

    In March of 1915, The W.H. Bundy Recording Company was foreclosed. It had failed to pay interest on its bonds and mortgages for two years and held $53,000 in outstanding debts on its bonds. A few months later, in September, the W.H. Bundy Recording Company’s assets, including the plant, real estate and all of its time recorders and machinery, was sold off at a public sale to cover the company’s debts.[11]

    The museum staff is still researching as to what happened to Willard’s sons and wife after the demise of the company. Our research has not determined the long standing effects of the litigation between W.H. Bundy Recording Company and I.T.R./ Bundy Manufacturing Company and if it had anything to do with the foreclosure. Willard Legrand Bundy had passed away in 1907, while the company was still successful.  But it is unfortunate that while Willard was the inventor of the world’s first time recorder, he ultimately did not have control over the invention, and that his son’s company, W. H. Bundy Time Recorder, was unsuccessful in the time recorder industry.  

     Special thanks to Patty and Meghan for all their work on the museum archives and to Eric and Patty for editing this blog!
 
[1] “Bounced His Brother”, Buffalo Express, Buffalo, NY, Sunday Part 6, 1902, Part 3, Pages 19 to 28, Vol. XIX; and “Brother Charges Brother with Violation of Contract”, The Syracuse Journal, November 24, 1903, pg 7
[2]Past and Present of Syracuse and Onondaga County, NY (NY and Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1908): 938-939; and “Brother Charges Brother with Violation of Contract”, The Syracuse Journal, November 24, 1903, pg 7
[3] “Bundy Company Expanding”, The Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY, Sunday Morning, March 1904
[4] “Bundy Company Will Expand”, Syracuse Journal, Monday, March 19, 1906, pg. 4
[5] “Syracuse Leads All Cities As Time Recorder Maker”, Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY, 1906
[6] “Syracuse Firms Make Big Show”, Syracuse Journal, Tuesday, October 16, 1906, pg 4
[7] “Increase Force for Big Order”, The Post-Standard Syracuse, NY, Thursday Morning, April 22, 1909
[8] “Brother Charges Brother with Violation of Contract”, The Syracuse Journal, November 24, 1903, pg 7; and “Bundy Time Recorder Company”, Oswego Daily Palladium, November 24, 1903, pg 9; and “Suite to Prevent use of a Name”, Broome Republican, November 28, 1903; and “Company Changes Name”, The Broome Republican, Saturday, January 16, 1904; and “Order in I.T.R. Case”, The Binghamton Press, Tuesday January 16, 1906; and “Must Give Bond”, The Syracuse Journal, January 17, 1906, pg 3; and “I.T.R. Company Wins Important Patent Lawsuit”, The Binghamton Press, April 17, 1907; and Joseph M. Gensheimer, “More History of the International Time Recording Company Before and After”,  NAWCC Bulletin, August 1996
[9] “Former Auburn Inventor Dead”, Auburn Semi-Weekly Journal, January 22, 1907; “Death Claims W.L. Bundy”, Syracuse Journal, Saturday, January 19, 1907, pg 4; and “I.T.R. Company Wins Important Patent, Lawsuit”, The Binghamton Press, April 17, 1907
[10] “Bundy Co. Won’t Sell”, Syracuse Journal, April 4, 1908
[11] “Trust Co. Start Foreclosure Act”, The Syracuse Journal, Tuesday, March 2, 1915, pg. 6; and “Syracuse Concern Started by Local Man to be Sold”, Binghamton Press, Wednesday Evening, March 3, 1915; and “Auctions”, Oswego Times, Thursday Evening, September 23, 1915, pg 8.

The Bundy Lecture Series

FREE Admission….includes free scones and tea:

Vulgar Facts: Tea Drinking and Capitalism in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton and Cranford

Presented by Meghan Hunt

Hunt will discuss how tea drinking symbolized both luxury and poverty in the Victorian Era, particularly in regards to the newly emerging capitalist system.  She will explore Victorian social mores through the obsession with the etiquette of tea drinking, and how social status dictated its consumption

A recent graduate of The University of Chicago’s Master of Arts in the Humanities program, Meghan Hunt is a first-year Ph.D. student at Binghamton University (SUNY) in Victorian Studies. Currently, she is researching film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ works, diary culture in mid-Victorian England, and disease in Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White.

The Triple Cities Stamp Club proudly hosts in next meeting on Saturday August 21, 2010 from 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM. 

The meeting will take place in the Bundy Museum Mansion located at 129 Main Street.  Lecturer and topic to be posted shortly. 

For questions and/comments contact Dorotea at (607) 772-9179 or Mr. Geisler at (215) 722-2614.

The Triple Cities Stamp Club proudly hosts in next meeting on July 24th, 2010 from 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM. The meeting will take place in the Bundy Museum Mansion located at 129 Main Street.

Lecturer and topic to be posted shortly. For questions and/comments contact Dorotea at (607) 772-9179 or Mr. Geisler at (215) 722-2614.

We would like to invite you to preview Antique Pleasures—the official shop of the Bundy Arts & Victorian Museum. As a thank you for coming by and visiting, we are offering a 10% discount on your first purchase. Simple mention this email.
The shop will be open Friday (2-12-10) from 10am to 5pm and also on Saturday (2-13-10), 10am to 5pm. Or call 607-221-3169 and setup an appointment with Terry.
Partial proceeds of all sales benefit the Bundy Museum.