If a nigger invented such a clock, they would simply make it run faster.... so that payday would come around sooner.

I remember such an anecdote that related to boiling water so that it was safe to drink. The white guy who was trying to help them figured out that a drink bottle with a small hole in it would empty in about the time required to boil the water so that it would be safe to drink. Leaving the niggers with this simple but useful tool, he later found that they were all suffering from cholera and dysentery again. When he checked the bottle, the niggers had simply put many more holes in it so that the water would empty quicker. Their understanding of it was something like magic. The water would be safe to drink when the timer bottle was emptied, so the faster the timer bottle is emptied, the sooner the water would be able to be drunk.

Close, it is in the common instance for when they gubmunt check comes.

they also use it to determine when their probation ends.