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Cooley installed his "Cardkey Lock" at the door
to a club, and provided "Cardkeys" for all the members. One
lock and hundreds of cards! For the first time the Club had control of
the cards they issued, AND better door security. Previously, members had
been given a regular metal key to the door but they made copies, and the
Club lost control of the keys and seldom re-keyed the lock because of
the cost and inconvenience. Cooley sold his patents to a small California
company, "Cardkey Systems" who promoted the inventions to the
thousands of fraternal and social clubs in the United States.
Cooley could hardly have imagined that his invention would give birth
to a new industry providing coded cards and locks for the control of entry
into restricted areas. It became known as: "CARD ACCESS CONTROL"
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 How
it grew: |
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Not only Clubs needed control of their keys, so did Hotels,
Industrial Plants, Universities, Hospitals, and the Government. During
World War II, Defense Plant workers had been required to wear Identification
Badges. Now badges were also coded to give the worker access to his parking
lot and the areas he was cleared to enter. These coded badges could be
sold to Industry for ten times the price a Club paid for its Cardkey.
Soon many companies entered the business, even IBM. The simple card and
lock became computerized and printed out the number of the card being
used to open a door, and where and when it was used. If a card was lost
or stolen it could be individually deleted from the system so that person
could no longer enter. If he tried to enter an alarm would sound. Then
cards took on the function of Time Cards. Card Access Control was deep
into the world of Hi-Tech and High-Prices.
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