Alarm clock
An alarm clock is a clock that is supposed to wake you from sleep at a previously set time or to remind you of a certain appointment. This is usually done by an acoustic signal.
history
Early history of the alarm clock
For a long time, watches were luxury items. For the vast majority of the population, sleep ended when it got light or when the rooster crowed. The few who had to get up before dawn were woken up by the night watchman.
However, clocks with an additional alarm function have been around for as long as wheel clocks at all, i.e. since the 14th century. In Dante's masterpiece, his “ Divine Comedy ” from 1320, the first precise description of a clock mechanism can be found. This movement is already equipped with an alarm mechanism.
From ancient times, descriptions of water clocks have been preserved, in which the water level in a vessel indicated the time. In doing so, floats could be inserted into the vessel, which triggered bells or figures via a lever at a certain filling level. In the monasteries of the 12th century, alarm clocks with bell signals are said to have reminded of the observance of prayer times. Such “horologies” have not been handed down.
The oldest surviving alarm clocks are wall clocks that gave the tower guards the task of striking the church bells. These so-called tower clocks are commonly dated to the 15th and 16th centuries.
Renaissance and Baroque
With the invention of the balance wheel and the spring as energy storage devices, watches became mobile - including those with an alarm function. They were popular as luxury accessories for wealthy citizens and nobles. However, they were not yet usable on the journey, only in the night quarters or at the destination.
From the 17th to the 19th century, oversized pocket watches with alarm clocks were used for journeys by carriage or horse . Already in their name they name “Kutschenuhren” or “Satteluhren” for the purpose. These carriage clocks kept the time reasonably correct, despite the bumps and swaying on the bumpy roads.
At the turn of the modern era there were the first clocks, the "officers' alarm clock", which were primarily used to wake you up. The name "officers' alarm clock" allegedly comes from the fact that officers who slept outside the barracks needed reliable alarm clocks so that they could arrive on time for morning roll call. These portable table clocks were valued as travel companions in wealthy circles. They were therefore also called "Pendule de Voyage".
Industrialization and alarm clock
In the second half of the 19th century, workers and employees had to show up for work on time. Robust wooden clocks from the workshops and smaller factories in the Black Forest have long been the cheapest way to be reliably woken up. Industrially manufactured table clocks with an alarm function based on the American "cottage clock" model were somewhat more expensive. These first mass-produced clocks often had an alarm clock.
From the 1860s / 70s onwards, the “Paris alarm clock”, which was initially produced in France, was even more compact. Unlike its American counterpart, it still had a clockwork with massive plates and gears. This massive alarm clock with a short pendulum was aimed more at lower middle-class households.
Probably the best known alarm clock from the 19th century is the baby alarm clock. It consists of a round metal case on small feet with a visible bell.
In the course of the 20th century, the alarm clock was adapted to contemporary tastes. The attached bell disappeared, the rear wall now served as a sound box. Strong colors gave the alarm clocks a friendly look. Countless shapes were created so that everyone could find "their" alarm clock. The alarm and movement have also been improved: there were alarm clocks with repetition, with a beep or with a quiet movement. Thanks to trains and automobiles , the alarm clock went on trips more often. You could buy special case alarm clocks for this. A wrist alarm clock (wrist watch) was registered for a patent in 1908 by the company Eterna . Well-known wristwatch models with an alarm clock were Memovox by Jaeger-LeCoultre in 1950 and Duofon by Pierce in 1955 . Even if the housings adapted to the contemporary taste of society, the technology remained the same for a long time. Only with the introduction of electronics did the construction of the alarm clocks change. The quartz revolution and radio clock technology ensured that high-precision alarm clocks were soon available for little money.
Since the end of the 20th century, the alarm clock has been largely replaced by cell phones or smartphones with integrated alarm systems. This trend shows that the alarm clock is often only an additional function for common household items. And the alarm clocks also have numerous extras. The alarm function takes a back seat.
Alarm clock types
Baby alarm clock
The baby alarm clock has had a major impact on the appearance of the alarm clock. The industrialization in the 19th century changed the social life. The new way of working in the factories forced people to submit to a time discipline . The shift work brought a changing starting work with them, making it a household no consistent times for waking and getting longer existed. At the same time, punctuality was important.
Reliable standing aids were therefore needed. The watch factories in the USA were the first to recognize this. There they had been producing inexpensive clocks in factories in large quantities with the help of machines for a long time. They got a box-shaped, round case made of sheet metal, plus a clockwork with a balance wheel that worked in any position. This alarm clock could either be set up or, thanks to a support ring on the bell, hung on the wall. The can-shaped "Globe" was the first model to hit the market. But he was soon replaced by the "baby", whose round metal body expanded towards the rear. This had several advantages: While the housing of the Globe still had to be bent and soldered, the housing of the baby could be shaped by pressing. The rear edge also offered a better stand.
In 1871, Arthur Junghans, a young man from the Black Forest, went to the USA to find out about the state of American watch production. Back in the Black Forest, he implemented the knowledge he had acquired in his factory in Schramberg. Arthur Junghans introduced the watch type in Germany in 1881, thus revolutionizing German watch production. Junghans not only adopted the shape, but also the English names of the models. The company developed a robust movement for its alarm clocks that could be produced cheaply in large quantities. The movement, baptized W10, set standards and was copied by many other watch factories. Junghans itself produced millions of W10 movements for a wide variety of alarm clock housings for over half a century.
Style alarm clock
The sales catalog of the Guarantee Association of German Watchmakers from 1913 shows the expansion of the range of trinkets and small-scale alarm clocks. Although the American impulses continued to be the focus of the production of alarm clocks, a diversification in case shape, color or dial design began. Time coordination played an increasingly important role in the industrial society of the German Empire. At the same time, the watch industry endeavored to perfect the new everyday watch and to adapt it to contemporary tastes. The design aspect played an increasingly important role for sales, especially with alarm clocks.
Style and trinket watches were very popular with the middle class. Alarm clock production was able to enter this market when the economic situation stabilized in 1924 with the introduction of the Rentenmark. The customer wanted high quality style alarm clocks. These style alarm clocks were characterized by a higher quality workmanship, elaborate materials, high quality works and a design that is not typical for alarm clocks. Often they were almost indistinguishable from conventional table and sippy clocks. Soon the term “boudoir alarm clock” was used for these quality sippy alarm clocks. Accordingly, the alarm clock was to be placed on the dressing table of the mirrored dresser. Occasionally the alarm clocks were sold in cases that made it possible to take it with you when traveling .
Travel alarm clock
With the invention of portable clocks, alarm clocks had already become mobile in the 16th century thanks to the spring as an energy store and the balance wheel. In the 1920s, travel alarm clocks became a mass item with increasing mobility. At first they were similar to the travel alarm clocks from earlier times. Pretty sippy alarm clocks were given an elegant case that protected the watch on the way. In the evening the watch was taken out of the protective case and placed on the bedside table. Later the work was firmly attached to the case. Now the case not only protected the alarm clock, but was also its holder .
Clock radio
In the early 1930s, numerous patent applications for radio time switches were received in both Europe and the USA. The first clock radio to be mass-produced is likely to be the Musalarm 8H59 from the US company Telechron. The clock is based on the patent of Francesco Collura, who in 1946 combined a “radio receiver and a timer”. Telechron launched its small, compact Musalarm as a small series. In 1948 six models of 60 each were produced. Three years later, with the Musalarm 8H67, there were already 20 models that were produced in 500 pieces.
In 1949, the Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung raved about the “sensational invention” by Fritz Niethammer from Stuttgart, who had invented an electric radio timer: “The radio is switched on by a small standstill that takes its place on the bedside table. […] In the […] morning at the desired time from deep sleep you are sunk into a dream, instead of the purring alarm clock you wake up to everyday life with happy music and cheerful cheer. ”Despite all the praise, the first marketable radio alarm clocks only appeared in Germany 1950s on. They were large radio receivers with a built-in alarm clock. “Jubilate” from Telefunken was such a “radio clock” and weighed 5 kg. The watchmakers did not meet with enthusiasm for this development. Clock radios of all sizes and shapes soon flooded the market. The 24-hour display, on the other hand, was not an achievement in the 1970s. "Jubilate" did not repeat the wake-up time until the following morning. “The wake-up call every twelve hours is likely to be undesirable and often annoying, for the neighbors and the like. U. more than for the owner ”, Werner Kausch knew as early as the 1950s.
Differentiation based on equipment features
In addition to the classic version with a dial and mechanical and electromechanical clockwork, there are the following additional functions and / or equipment variants :
Digital display
Digital alarm clocks have an electronic clockwork with the ability to output various data on a display . This makes it possible to integrate numerous additional functions that could not be implemented in mechanical or electromechanical alarm clocks, or only with great effort. In addition to the usual additional functions of digital clocks, there are additional wake-up times, which can also be dependent on the day of the week, or an automatic earlier wake-up when the outside temperature falls below a specified level.
Projection of the display
For operation in the dark of the bedroom, there are various approaches to enable the current time to be read at any time. In addition to conventional luminous dials, there is now often a simple look with which a self-luminous digital display is projected onto the wall or ceiling . With battery-operated devices, a (large, easy-to-feel) button must typically be pressed; with mains-operated clocks (often radio alarm clocks), the display is sometimes activated continuously. This display is always a second display parallel to the normal digital daylight display, where more information is usually displayed. Smartphones are also used as projection alarm clocks. For this purpose, a lens is placed on the display, through which the time or the alarm are projected.
Radio module
Many electronic alarm clocks have a radio module for automatically setting and adjusting the time via the DCF77 radio signal from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt . This avoids operating errors caused by the (possibly forgotten) changeover to summer time.
24-hour alarm time scale
With analog alarm clocks, the 12 hour clock face causes the problem that the activated alarm clock wakes up every 12 hours. The user has to switch on the alarm clock in advance in order to use the alarm function. For this reason, some analog alarm clocks have either a 24-hour clock face (like analog time switches) or at least a 24-hour scale for the alarm function. To do this, the time (similar to wristwatches with a day display) had to be set correctly on the 12-hour scale.
Snooze button
The snooze button ( English snooze button ) are often found in electronic alarm clocks and clock radios - usually on top of the device. It is often made particularly large so that it is easier to find in the dark. When you press it, it interrupts the alarm signal, only to restart it five to ten minutes later, depending on the device.
The constant alarm repetition can usually only be ended by switching off the alarm function; some variants only wake up a certain number. However, this will not delete the 24-hour alarm. Often referred to by manufacturers as the automatic wake-up function, the snooze function must be distinguished from other types of timers such as sleep timers (snooze or sleep function) on entertainment electronics devices such as television sets, which refer to a function for switching off the device after a certain time.
In addition to a button on the alarm clock, Braun introduced various models in the 1980s whose alarm tone can be interrupted by shouting (“voice control”) or waving (“reflex control”).
Alarm clock with special alarm functions
Light alarm clock
Light alarm clocks are alarm clocks that wake you up by gradually or continuously lighting up the room. The simulated sunrise is intended to slowly prepare the human organism for getting up. According to the manufacturer, the increasing brightness of the bedroom is unconsciously perceived by the sleeper and causes an increased serotonin production. In addition, the melatonin level is reduced at the same time . Both favor natural awakening. This natural waking up phase is supported in practice by natural sounds such as the chirping of birds .
Alarm clock for the deaf and hard of hearing
In addition to or instead of the acoustic signal generator , these alarm clocks have flashing lights that emit strong flashes of light, or a device that triggers vibrations to wake people with impaired hearing . If hearing loss occurs as a result of an accident at work, the statutory accident insurance in Germany sometimes also pays for such an alarm clock. In these cases, a light alarm clock is one of the aids for the hard of hearing and the deaf. Under certain conditions, the Integration Office or the Federal Employment Agency will make an additional payment.
Depending on the setting, the light pulses in a darkened room, which can last up to a few minutes or until they are switched off, are usually sufficient to wake a sleeping person even with their eyes closed. B. are covered by pillows or blankets. Time switches or short-term alarm clocks in special designs can also be connected to light signal transmitters.
An alarm clock equipped with an integrated vibration alarm is attached under the mattress or on the pillow. Other models include a vibration cushion or a vibration motor to be attached to the bed frame, which are connected to the alarm clock by cable.
Alternatively, the built-in alarm clock can be used in mobile phones, whereby the vibration alarm mode is activated on the phone and it is placed in the pillow.
Sleep phase alarm clock
Sleep phase alarm clocks (also called biorhythm alarm clocks ) wake you up during a light REM sleep phase. Due to the physical restlessness and movement in bed, the sensor determines the light sleep phase and wakes you up in a predefined time window. Corresponding tests show positive effects if the start of the day does not start against the chronobiological rhythm.
Movable versions
The aim of alarm clocks with moving elements is to prompt the person to be woken up to switch off the alarm clock to become active. This includes finding the alarm clock or parts of it, practicing sporting activities with a dumbbell-shaped alarm clock or aiming a point of light at an alarm clock with a target.
- Clocky: In 2005 the student Gauri Nanda built an alarm clock that hides after being woken up. Thanks to its two large rubber wheels, Clocky is able to drive away in the event of an alarm in order to hide from its owner, so that he is forced to get up and search to end the alarm. Nanda designed this alarm clock during her graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . In 2005 she received the Ig Nobel Prize in Economics for this. After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nanda started the company "Nanda Home" to market Clocky.
- Rotor Alarm Clock: A similar concept as Clocky pursued the flying rotors Alarm Clock : raises to wake the rotor accompanied by a beep; the alarm can only be switched off again by attaching the rotor.
Further
- Alarm clocks are also available as an additional function in many devices that contain a clock. Compact stereos and cell phones are an example .
- In a distant sense, time-controlled specialty coffee machines can also be viewed as alarm clocks, as they prepare coffee at a preset time. The waking effect can take place, depending on the design of the device, through the noise of the coffee beans being ground, or through an additional integrated alarm signal after the coffee has been brewed.
- Short-term alarm clocks - also known as egg timers - emit a signal after an adjustable period of time, usually a maximum of 60 minutes.
- Throwing alarm clock to be handled by throwing
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literature
- Claire Hölig (ed.): Rasselbande. A brief cultural history of the alarm clock. Furtwangen 2017, ISBN 3-922673-36-8 .
- Richard Mühe , Helmut Kahlert , Beatrice Techen: Alarm clock . Callwey, Munich 1991, ISBN 978-3-7667-1000-0 .
- Helmut Kahlert: How the alarm clock got on your wrist. In: Uhren Magazin. Volume 3, 1993, pp. 104-111.
- Helmut Kahlert: Alarm Clock / German Clock Museum Furtwangen . Callwey, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-7667-1000-1 (with Richard Mühe , Beatrice Techen).
- Gisela Lixfeld (ed.): Troublemaker, Leisetick & Co. Alarm clocks over time. Stadtmuseum Schramberg, Schramberg 2013, DNB 104799268X .
- Gisela Lixfeld (ed.): American watches - worldwide. Stadtmuseum Schramberg, Schramberg 2012, DNB 1025615204 .
- Gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum: The story of the hour. Clocks and modern time systems. Munich / Vienna 1992. (New edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-86647-139-9 )
- Lukas Stolberg: alarm clock with flintlock, powder steam and candle. In: Old clocks and modern timekeeping. Volume 12, 1989, No. 4, pp. 9-15.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy. Translated by Karl Witte, Berlin (1916), p. 326: "like the clockwork that calls to the hour (...) / us, and how the wheels pull and drift / lets tin tin sound so sweet."
- ↑ Landels, John: Water-clocks and time measurement in classical antiquity , in: Endeavor Jg. 3, 1979, H. 1, pp. 32-37. doi: 10.1016 / 0160-9327 (79) 90007-3
- ↑ Dohrn-van Rossum, Gerhard: The story of the hour. Clocks and Modern Time Orders, Munich / Vienna 1992, p. 64.
- ↑ Dohrn-van Rossum, Gerhard: The story of the hour. Clocks and Modern Time Orders, Munich / Vienna 1992, p. 102.
- ↑ Like the following: Graf, Johannes: The alarm clock - there from the beginning, in: Rasselbande. Small cultural history of the alarm clock, ed. by Claire Hölig, Furtwangen 2017, p. 13.
- ↑ See: Charles Allix: Carriage Clocks. Their History & Development, Woodbridge 1974.
- ↑ Kahlert, Helmut: When the clocks came to the people. The development of the watch as an everyday good (1993), printed in: Ders .: "For the sake of a watch friend." Scattered contributions to the history of the watch. Edited by Johannes Graf, Furtwangen 2012, pp. 164–179, here p. 174.
- ^ Graf, Johannes: The French Century, in: Rasselbande. Small cultural history of the alarm clock, ed. by Claire Hölig, Furtwangen 2017, p. 25.
- ↑ B. Humbert: The wrist-alarm clock. In: Swiss Watches and Jewelry Journal. 1958, pp. 385-397 (continued).
- ^ Helmut Kahlert , Richard Mühe , Gisbert L. Brunner , Christian Pfeiffer-Belli: wrist watches: 100 years of development history. Callwey, Munich 1983; 5th edition, ibid 1996, ISBN 3-7667-1241-1 , p. 506.
- ↑ Hölig, Claire: Nur für mich, in: Rasselbande - Kleine Kulturgeschichte des Weckers, ed. by Claire Hölig, Furtwangen 2017, pp. 42–47.
- ↑ On the connection between industrialization and the emergence and spread of alarm clocks see: Kahlert, Helmut: Zeitplanung und Zeitführung, in: Richard Mühe, Helmut Kahlert, Beatrice Techen: Wecker, Munich 1991, pp. 17-19.
- ↑ Hölig, Claire: One for all - one alarm clock for everyone, in: Rasselbande –Kleine Kulturgeschichte des Weckers, ed. by Claire Hölig, Furtwangen 2017, p. 31ff.
- ↑ Lixfeld, Gisela: The imitation of the model. Black Forests produce American watches, in: American watches worldwide. Edited by Gisela Lixfeld, Schramberg 2012, pp. 19–41.
- ↑ Krämer, Reinhold: The alarm clock. Mass production of a necessary timepiece, in: Troublemaker, Leisetick & Co. Alarm clocks over time. Edited by Gisela Lixfeld, Schramberg 2013, pp. 19–32.
- ^ Sales catalog of the Garantiegemeinschaft Deutscher Uhrmacher eV, Leipzig 1913, reprint in: Uhren 1913, Furtwanger Contributions to the History of Clocks, Vol. 1, Furtwangen 1980.
- ^ Mühe, Richard / Kahlert, Helmut / Techen, Beatrice: Wecker, Furtwangen / Munich 1991, p. 134.
- ^ Mühe, Richard / Kahlert, Helmut / Techen, Beatrice: Wecker, Furtwangen / Munich 1991, p. 127.
- ↑ Lixfeld, Gisela: Up to date. Changing alarm clocks, in: Troublemaker, Leisetick & Co. Alarm clocks in the course of time, ed. by Gisela Lixfeld, Schramberg 2013, p. 46.
- ↑ Hölig, Claire: Nur für mich, in: Hölig, Claire: Rasselbande - Kleine Kulturgeschichte des Weckers, Furtwangen 2017, p. 42 f.
- ↑ Collura, Francesco: Combination Radio Receiver and Timer Clock Case , Patent No. 145996, United States Patent Office, January 21, 1946.
- ↑ Walter, Kris: Telechron 8H67 Musalarm , in: greenhillsgf.com
- ↑ Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung 7/1949, p. 187.
- ↑ Schindler, Georg: Die Radiouhr, in: Die Uhr 4/1954, p. 10.
- ↑ Kausch, Werner: "The technical function of built-in time switches", in: Die Uhr 4/1954, p. 13.