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Not to, er, sound a note of alarm or anything, but you’ll notice roosters are nowhere to be found on this list. That’s because roosters will (and do) ‘cock a doodle doo all night long, if they’re awake. Trust me. I know this to be true after spending a long, sleepless night at a small inn on a small Greek island in the middle of a brutally cold winter.
Now then.
1. Bladder Control
Early man drank tons and tons of water if he needed to wake up before the sun. Why? Well, if you’re over the age of 30 or so, you probably know what getting up in the middle of the night to urinate is all about. The custom of “over-drinking” before bed was even utilized by Native American Indians well into the 20th century.
2. The Clepsydra
Speaking of water, water clocks were used by the earliest civilizations for thousands of years. They weren’t so much clocks as they were timers, working much in the same way a common hourglass works. It wasn’t until 245 B.C. that Ctesibius of Alexandria improved the clepsydra, or ‘water thief’ as it was known, and created the world’s first mechanical clock. Its mind-boggling to think about what Ctesibius accomplished: seasonal cycles required irregular water levels be dispensed into a receiving vessel with equidistant hour-marks, while daily cycles required varying hour-marks and regular efflux. Making the clepsydra an alarm clock required nothing more than a floating bob that struck an alarm once it reached a desired level. Later versions turned gears, signaling an alarm or even springing a catapult that launched a pellet into a metallic plate.
3. Religious Wake-Up Calls
In many early Christian societies, bells called churchgoers to prayer in the morning. Religious bells also served to mark the passage of time throughout the day before people wore watches. In most Islamic traditions, audible tones and prayers marked the start of the day (just as they do today). The Fajr (literally “dawn”) is the first of five daily prayers blasted out through the village. Four more prayers follow the sun and help mark the passage of time day in, day out.
4. Peg Clocks
About the year 1555, Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma’ruf (who must have had a heck of a time signing his signature on checks!) invented a few different types of mechanical alarm clocks, including one the would sound at any desired time. This was achieved by placing a peg into a hole on the face of the clock. Taqi al-Din was born in Syria and schooled in Cairo. Similar clocks were also developed around the same time in Western Europe.
5. The Knocker-Up
The Knocker-Up (also referred to as a Knocker-Upper) gained prominence during the Industrial Revolution by using a long stick with wire or a knob affixed to the end to rouse customers at a desired time. Clients would agree verbally, in advance, or simply post a preferred time on doors or windows. For a few pence a week, clients could rest assured knowing their Knocker Upper would not leave until he (Knocker Ups were almost always men) was certain a person was awake. Larger Factories and Mills often employed their own Knocker Ups to ensure laborers made it to work on time.
6. The Factory Whistle
At the dawn of The Industrial Age, workers lived around the factory at which they worked, and would wake at the sound of the factory whistle. Steel and textile mills drew in farmers from the countryside, and like that, ding-ding, the clock ruled the roost. Time was always money. But now time could also be regulated more easily. Work was no longer driven by the season; rather it was divided into units of time. It was the factory whistle, not the rising sun or the chirping birds that called people to work.
7. Levi Hutchens’ 4 am Alarm
In 1787, Levi Hutchens of Concord, New Hampshire, invented another incipient alarm clock. Built into a simple pine box, a gear mechanism set off a bell. However, the bell on his clock could ring only at 4 am, not coincidentally the time Levi needed to get up for work! Finally, on October 24, 1876 a mechanical wind-up alarm clock that could be set for any time was patented by Seth E Thomas.
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Comments (29)
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I knew about #1 thanks to Lisa Simpson
posted by JC on 3-4-2010 at 9:16 am
How did the people, ie, the knocker uppers and the church bell ringer-know to wake up?
posted by Greta on 3-4-2010 at 9:30 am
@Greta – maybe they just never went to sleep?!
posted by David K. Israel on 3-4-2010 at 9:35 am
There is a rooster near our house that has a date with death the next time he wakes me up at 5:45am… ON THE DOT. That just so happened to be 15 minutes before my 35€ REAL alarm clock is supposed to do its job. I have a feeling one of these days we’ll be eating Gallo Vecchio for supper soon.
posted by Kate on 3-4-2010 at 9:40 am
“The Knocker-Up (also referred to as a Knocker-Upper) gained prominence during the Industrial Revolution by using a long stick with wire or a knob affixed to the end to rouse customers…”
Wow, so many jokes, so few of them appropriate for this site…
posted by Tom in GA on 3-4-2010 at 9:40 am
Still, they haven’t been able to improve upon the rooster. All I have now is cockatiels and lovebirds, and we still have to cover them every night to get any morning rest.
posted by Miss Cellania on 3-4-2010 at 10:38 am
This was an interesting article. However, the editing on mentalfloss is getting worse by the day.
posted by Ace on 3-4-2010 at 10:52 am
I didn’t see any editing problems. Loved the article, thanks.
posted by Sarah in CA on 3-4-2010 at 11:10 am
@ JC
I thought the same thing. O the things “The Simpson’s” teach you…
But I didnt get the reference to being over 30 and knowing about getting up to pee?…
Someone please enlighten me. Yes I am under 30…
posted by Chrystani on 3-4-2010 at 12:25 pm
The bladder control trick is still used by soldiers in battle. Drink a whole canteen and you won’t be able to sleep for more than a few hours.
posted by Troy H. on 3-4-2010 at 1:03 pm
kid in my dorm had stayed up for days cramming for a final and then drank vast quantities of water before finally crashing in bed just hours before the test. That was the first time I’d heard of method number 1 up there!
posted by ann on 3-4-2010 at 1:08 pm
I’m well under 30 and I’ve used the bladder control trick myself on a day when I urgently needed to get up early and was afraid the alarm wouldn’t wake me :) Worked like a charm.
posted by Nicole on 3-4-2010 at 1:17 pm
So if there was a pregnant female doing the knocking, would it be a knocked up knocker up?
posted by Kevin on 3-4-2010 at 1:19 pm
another method is to have a pet…my cat used to wake me up every single morning at the same time asking for food, she would bite my toes and that was sure to wake me up!
posted by dre on 3-4-2010 at 2:41 pm
I haven’t needed any alarm for years. I don’t know why. 4:44 or 4:45 every morning I roll over and look at the clock. Frankly, it kind of stinks because it also occurs on the weekend. And it occurs, with slightly less accuracy, even when I’m in another time zone for a few days. While it’s a good thing usually, it is a real pain after a late night.
posted by Hyacinth on 3-4-2010 at 3:57 pm
Once read an article on the American GIs in Egland during WWII who were separated from the English by a common language. One of the more harrowing things for the GI was to have their English girl friends tell them that they’d been “knocked-up” during the night, meaning that someone had called late at night.
posted by Prism on 3-4-2010 at 4:05 pm
I discovered while in Turkey last summer that I’d make a terrible Muslim — the first call to prayer of the day only woke me on the first day; after that, I slept right through it, even though I loved to hear it. Most beautiful alarm ever!
posted by Beth on 3-4-2010 at 4:09 pm
My cats do a splendid job of waking us up!
posted by Kate on 3-4-2010 at 5:58 pm
in some countries, people think that roosters were lucky, probably cause people with roosters woke before other people and got there goods to market sooner and therefore became more successful, early bird gets the worm
posted by cheap on 3-4-2010 at 7:55 pm
i liked your comment about the roosters, i had a roster as well and it had the same problem, they are the most unreliable alarm clock.
posted by estate on 3-4-2010 at 9:27 pm
I wake up with my internal alarm clock. I decide how many hours I can sleep when I go to bed, and then wake up at about the right time.
posted by Bob on 3-4-2010 at 9:43 pm
My dog wakes me up, without fail, at 7:15 every morning. I don’t know if she looks at the clock and waits until that time, but come 7:15, she plants her front paws on the edge of my bed and I open my eyes to see a tongue-lolling part German Shepherd inches away from me.
posted by Kate H on 3-4-2010 at 11:45 pm
I have a guinea pig who won’t act as an initial alarm, but boy does she put the snooze feature out of business. Think Pavlov. She hears the alarm and knows that means food and she will not be quiet until I give it to her. If you’ve ever had a guinea pig, you know what their “feed me” squeal sounds like!
posted by Hastings on 3-5-2010 at 10:56 am
@Miss Cellania: We have Quaker parrots and budgies. One Quaker is up by 7 every morning without fail and cover or no cover, she makes sure the rest of us get up, too. Who needs an alarm clock?
posted by Siobhan on 3-5-2010 at 4:41 pm
you didnt mention the old candle alarm.a person would stick a small tack or nail into the side of a candle and when the flame burned down to the tack it would drop down to a pan and wake the person up.
posted by bobby honea on 3-5-2010 at 7:46 pm
The term “knocked up” has always had an entirely different meaning in England as opposed to North America!! So does the term “get stuffed” or “to be stuffed”!
posted by Sandie on 3-7-2010 at 10:50 am
To JC,
When men get older, their prostate enlarges and presses against the bladder, and they have to urinate more frequently. This usually occurs in men over 40 or 50. Have fun getting old. Ha!
posted by Ken Pasco on 3-7-2010 at 3:41 pm
Mr. Israel,
I think you’ll find that the ‘up’ in ‘knocker-up’ is a post-positive, and as such the plural should be ‘knockers-up,’ much like ‘passers-by.’
posted by Conor on 3-9-2010 at 2:09 pm
I agree with Dre about pets – our cat paws at the door at 6:00 every morning!
posted by Jayme on 4-4-2010 at 12:09 am