The article is a working paper from the project ›Non-state law of the economy. The normative order of industrial relations in the metal industry from the Empire to the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany‹, undertaken at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt am Main (mpilhlt). A key part of the project is the creation of a digital edition of primary sources that reflects the diversity of norms and regulations in factories of the metal industry in the 19th and 20th centuries. The article illustrates the multiplicity of these normative arrangements by looking at work regulations (Arbeitsordnungen) and explains their importance for the history of labour law as well as the theoretical links to the research of the mpilhlt. Using the regulation of working hours as an example and selecting specific keywords – including the regulation of work breaks, of smoking and of child labour, and the introduction of measures to monitor individual working time – the article demonstrates the possibilities of analysis offered by a digital source edition and discusses preliminary methodological considerations and challenges of the digital editing of legal sources.