Let’s travel back in time to an ordinary morning in 19th century England. Fog still hangs over the streets of cities and towns, the faint chirping of birds is barely audible, and most people are in a deep sleep. However, … A long working day waits for no one, and punctuality becomes a vital requirement for workers, merchants and officials. But who or what ensured that these people woke up in time to start their work?
Before clever metal mechanisms started ringing, the task of waking up early fell to such strange heroes as human alarm clocks, known in English as “knocker-ups” or “knocker-uppers.” These people were an essential service in the industrial and urban communities of Victorian England, especially in the late nineteenth century.
The job of the “highways” was to walk the streets and roads with a long, thin bar on the windows of workers, especially those with strict factory schedules. Sometimes they would use brooms to hit the glass, waking their customers in time so they could get up and go to work. This profession was not only in demand by factory workers, but also by students, merchants and patients who needed to get up early.
These human alarm clocks were so reliable and necessary that, in some cases, people agreed to turn them off in their homes several times if they were afraid to fall asleep. In areas where mechanical stimuli have not yet become common, this work has continued for decades. It was a job that reflected the social and economic organization of the time: manufacturing required punctuality to keep productive gears in gear, and in the absence of accessible technology, the solution was to hire someone to carry out the task by hand.
The need to measure and control time
Why was it so important to wake up on time in 19th century England? The answer is linked to the rise of the Industrial Revolution. New forms of production in factories and workshops required strict fixed schedules and work discipline. Rural life, with its natural rhythms linked to sunlight, gave way to a world where time was fragmented and structured by predetermined schedules.
To manage work and increase productivity, time control has become a priority, and with it the need for tools that facilitate time measurement and management has emerged. Before industrialization, clocks did not have widespread daily use, and were expensive and inaccurate. The majority of the population relied on the sun, birdsong, a church bell, or a human alarm clock, in the absence of these.
Waking up to Kantian punctuality became a matter of economic survival for many working-class families. Work that guaranteed a salary was largely dependent on not arriving late to a factory shift, as punctuality was tied to the discipline required by the new factories. Here the invention of the mechanical alarm appears as a revolutionary solution.
Origins of the mechanical alarm clock
Although there are historical references to devices indicating time with alarms in ancient times, the first mechanical alarm clock similar to what we know today is a relatively recent invention. This achievement is generally attributed to American Levi Hutchins, who in 1787 created a clock that struck 4 a.m. to wake up. Naturally, his invention was not subject to modification: it only worked at that specific time and he did not commercialize it.
Real progress in popularizing the mechanical alarm came in Europe, especially during the nineteenth century, with the improvement in the manufacture of pocket watches and wall clocks, which began to include adjustable alarm mechanisms. John Harwood, an English watchmaker, patented in 1928 one of the first modern, portable alarm clocks with a spring-loaded metal bell. Early mechanical alarm clocks included gears, springs, and hammers that struck the bell when the hand struck the exact time. Accuracy and reliability depended on the quality of manufacturing and design, which improved as industrial watchmaking progressed.
However, the major breakthrough was to make the alarm adjustable by the user, breaking previous technical limitations and allowing for more flexible use. Furthermore, gradual miniaturization allowed the manufacture of portable clocks, which became more accessible during the second half of the nineteenth century. His invention symbolized not only technical progress but also a change in ways of life: a world in which time ceased to be a diffuse data and became a controlled measure, essential for economic development and social organization.
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