![]() ![]() Smith and a reluctant fan of early morning wake-up calls so he doesn't miss breakfast. Richard MacKichan is Editor at boutique hotel specialists Mr. So here’s to the humble alarm clock, and all they’ve bullied out of bed to go do something meaningful. But eventually you give in to its incessant demands to be awake, alert, alive.Īnd that’s why, when people ponder landmark inventions, design milestones, and the like, these rest interrupters deserve their place-we’d have slept our way through far too much without them. ![]() “Don’t be late for that marketing brainstorm,” it says. Of course, inspiration often strikes during moments of pressureless relaxation, but it’s that early morning alert that forces an idea into a reality. Hell, animals sleep through entire seasons because they know they’re not going to get anything done we’d probably do the same, given half the chance. It’s these ringing/bleeping/radio-playing taskmasters that have laid the path for pioneers-humankind’s productivity entrusted to machines. Invention is a creative job, by rights, but anyone who claims their creativity strikes early in the morning is lying. And here’s a list of some of the inventions that followed in the next few decades: elevators, batteries, plastic, stainless steel, the telephone, the lightbulb, x-rays and the ballpoint pen. It wasn’t until Frenchman Antoine Redier patented an adjustable version in 1847 that waking up got easier en masse. It was an unwieldy pine cabinet containing a large brass clock which would trigger a bell to ring specifically at 4 a.m., the time he liked to rise for work (the lunatic). The first notable mechanical alarm clock was invented-entirely for himself-by New Hampshire clockmaker Levi Hutchins in 1787. In 19th-century Britain, for example, door-banging “knocker-uppers” were a common means of waking up workers (of course Britain had knocker-uppers), though how they were up in time to do the waking is unexplained. But throw in an industrial revolution and suddenly the need to be places on time is somewhat increased. Then came some water-powered striking town clocks in China, and Venice got its bronze-statue-beaten St. Once, all it took was a well-developed circadian rhythm, a couple of cockerels, and a general lack of curtains to have us up and at it with the sun. ![]() Think about it: the lie-ins the missed meetings the hours of inspiration lost to deep uninterrupted slumber-who knows how much those bedside irritants have sped up progress. Admirable inventions, the lot of them.Īnd, yes, their inventors will all go on about determination and overcoming the odds and Eureka moments and such, but there is absolutely no way that any of these things would have been invented, manufactured, marketed, and made into modern success stories without one thing: the alarm clock. Those machines that pour 12 beers at once save precious time. Welcome to High Minded: a series of essays in which we look at everyday things, ideas, and experiences from a different perspective-like stoned epiphanies, but put to paper. ![]()
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