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Saturday, 16 July 2011

Alarm Clock

The word "alarm" started out as the exclamation "to arms!" coming from Italian all' arme! Such alarms, led to one of Shakespeare's choice stage directions "alarums and excursions", found in Henry VI and Richard III. The stage direction meant that all the extras dressed as soldiers were to dash about the stage shouting "To arms!" and generally giving the impression of exciting military action.

Plato and his students needed to be up in time for lessons, so the Greek genius built a vessel that gradually filled with water, forcing air through tiny openings that acted as whistles.

Before alarms clocks, there were candle clocks, that when burned, indicated the passage of periods of time. To set an alarm, you pushed a nail into the desired point and the nail would fall and clank on the metal holder.

A German candle clock By de:Benutzer:Flyout 

Another one was a candle with a metal ball embedded in it. When the candle burned down, the ball fell out, hitting a hard surface and so waking up the sleeper.

During the Industrial Revolution, British workers were woken up by a person who made sure they could get to work on time. It was the job of the knocker-uppers to knock on people's doors or a long and light stick to reach windows on higher floors to wake them for the early shift.


Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire, came up with an alarm clock in 1787 that only rang at 4 a.m. because that was what time he got up.

Hutchins' wife murdered him one New England morning. The time, according to reports, was 4:05 AM.

Seth Thomas Clock Company was granted a patent in 1876 for a small bedside alarm clock, which many believe was the first clock of this type.

U.S. patent #256,265 was issued for the Block Clock in 1882. It was an alarm clock mounted over the bed that, at a set time, dropped two dozen small wood blocks on the sleeper.

In the US, production of alarm clocks was allowed in 1944, despite them containing brass needed for war materials, because workers kept missing their shifts due to a critical alarm clock shortage.

A device called a 'Teasmade' was popular in the 1960s and 1970s in the UK. it was an alarm clock which also made tea, ensuring it was ready upon waking up.

Some people have a "natural alarm clock" allowing them to wake up when they want. This is actually caused by a natural stress hormone.


Source Daily Mail

1 comment:

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