MY INTERNAL ALARM CLOCK may not be a subject popular to many of us who never like the sound of a loud, annoying alarm going off but what I will be discussing is our internal alarm clock. We, on the average, do not listen internally but we all have one. Let’s see if it might be a benefit to “tune” into this device sitting idly by. First, how many of us know the history of the alarm clock. I found a great reference on this subject from clockhistory.com 

History of the Alarm Clock

The alarm attachment to a clock is a simple concept. There is often a notched cam rotating every 12 or 24 hours. A lever falls into the notch, releasing a gear train that drives a hammer which repeatedly hits a bell. The alarm may ring until the weight or spring runs down, or there may be a shut-off switch.

Mechanical clocks for the home might have been made as early as the 13th century (see Revolution in Time by David S. Landis, Belknap Press, 1983, p. 80), and it is likely that the alarm was available very early on.

The oldest alarm clock I found referenced is a German iron wall clock with a bronze bell, probably made in Nuremberg in the 15th century. This clock is 19 inches tall with open framework construction. It hung high on the wall to make room for the driving weights to fall. Alarm clocks from the 1500s are in existence. See The Clockwork Universe, German Clocks and Automata 1550 – 1650, Maurice and Mayr, 1980, Smithsonian, Neale Watson Academic Publications, New York.

The book Early English Clocks by Dawson, Drover and Parkes, Antique Collectors Club, 1982, documents some alarm clocks. An example is a lantern clock ca. 1620 that has an alarm set disc on front of the dial. One longcase (grandfather) clock ca. 1690 is documented, as is a 30 hour hanging timepiece alarm by Joseph Knibb.

English clockmakers emigrated to the United States in the 18th century and no doubt carried the idea of the alarm clock with them. It has been incorrectly stated that Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire invented the first alarm clock in 1787. His alarm clock is predated by the German and English ones mentioned above.

Simon Willard of Grafton, Massachusetts, made alarm time timepieces sometimes called “lighthouse clocks” in the 1820’s. Some of the American wooden works shelf clocks of the 1820’s – 30’s have alarms, as do many brass movement shelf clocks after 1840.

Setting the Stage for the American “Tin Can” Alarm clock

Seth Thomas Clock Company was granted a patent in 1876 for a small bedside alarm clock (small compared to an American wooden-cased shelf clock). This may have been the first clock of this type, or perhaps other makers were working on this idea at the same time. In the late 1870’s, small alarm clocks became popular, and the major US clock companies started making them, followed by the German clock companies. The predecessor of Westclox was founded in 1885 with an improved method of small clock construction.

Westclox introduced the Chime Alarm in 1931. This clock was advertised with the slogan “First he whispers, then he shouts.”

The Westclox Moonbeam was introduced in 1949. This clock’s alarm flashes a light on and off, then a buzzer sounds. Westclox now sells an excellent reproduction of the Moonbeam.

General Electric-Telechron first marketed a snooze alarm in 1956. The first Westclox Drowse (snooze) electric alarms were sold in 1959 and could be set for five (5) or ten (10) minutes snooze time.

Many interesting alarm clocks have been made over the years. There was the Tugaslugabed. This novel alarm clock would wake you by pulling your toe. When you went to bed, you would place a loop around your toe and the alarm clock would be bolted to the floor or footboard. Eight seconds before the set time, an alarm would ring and then at the set time this clock would pull hard on the loop to awake the soundest of sleepers.

Tugaslugabed Reference 1

Tugaslugabed Reference 2

The latest in high tech clocks is the internet alarm clock, which can also be used as a countdown timer or a stopwatch. The WorldClockshows many statistics such as population, births, deaths, deforestation, gallons of oil pumped, etc.

If you are interested in collecting alarm clocks, you might benefit from the Alarm Clock Chapter of the NAWCC.

Contributors: Jeffery Wood

 

LET’S LEARN TO USE OUR INTERNAL ALARM CLOCK from an article from Sleep.org

Learn how to open your eyes naturally in the morning.

There are two specific kinds of mornings. Some of them involve you coming to a sudden start from a deep slumber as soon as the alarm goes off loudly. In those situations, you groggily get ready for the day, wishing you could go back to bed. And then there are other mornings when you naturally wake up a few minutes before your alarm goes off. On those mornings, you start the day feeling well-rested and alert—the complete opposite of the first kind of morning.

What if you found out that you can actually train yourself to have a lot more mornings where you wake up without the jarring interruption of an alarm? The key is understanding how to use your body’s natural circadian rhythm to your benefit. Your circadian rhythm is what makes you feel alert or sleepy, depending on the time of day. When you let the rhythm wake you up naturally, you feel alert because you were ready to stop sleeping. When an alarm forces you to wake up before your body is ready, you feel groggy, as you may have interrupted a deep stage of sleep.

To stop using an alarm, you need to create a consistent rhythm from day to day. If you go to sleep around the same time every night and, before drifting off, tell yourself when you need to wake up in the morning, you can actually train your body to come to at the right time. But this won’t work if you’re exhausted. No amount of circadian rhythm training can help you if you are getting less sleep than you need.

First, figure out how much sleep you really need (hint: most people require seven to nine hours). Then count backwards from when you need to wake up to find out when, exactly, you should be asleep. If, for example, you should be going to sleep at 10:00pm, rather than 11:00pm, try moving back your bedtime gradually in 15-minute increments—10:45pm during the first week, 10:30pm during the second week, and 10:15pm during the third week. When you transition slowly, you give your body more time to adjust to the new schedule and it’ll be easier to nod off.

An hour before your new bedtime, start a bedtime ritual to get ready for sleep. Dim the lights, turn off electronics, and try to relax by taking a warm bath, reading, meditating, or stretching. It can also help to make sure to expose yourself to bright light in the morning. So if you do wake up a big groggy, open the shades first thing to start to get your body clock back on track. Also, just to be on the safe side, set an alarm anyway. After all, you don’t want the anxiety of worrying that you’ll oversleep to get in the way of dozing off.

 

Blogger Side Notes: My husband and I don’t use an external alarm clock unless it is a very important meeting, appointment, and/or event we cannot afford to miss but even if it is set for an exact time, we find ourselves waking up and turning it off as we have learned to rise early, get started without having to rush, and set a positive tone for our day. I realize that not all people are early risers, but if you can develop this trait your life will become more productive and less stressful. These suggestions above would be helpful if you desire a wonderful change in your life. The birds sing more freely, the air smells fresher, food tastes better, and exercise becomes routine.

LIVE LIFE; LOVE LIFE; AND LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST by beating the rooster up and do a little crowing yourself.

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