Before alarm clocks: how people woke up through history

Before the alarm clock was invented in 1787 and patented in England nearly a century later, humanity relied on a variety of methods to wake at specific times. In Italy and other Christian countries, church bells and the figure of the campanaro (bell ringer) marked the day's key moments, including the morning Angelus announcing dawn, a practice dating back to at least the 13th century. In the UK, the knocker upper would tap on windows with a stick or use a blowpipe to shoot pebbles, continuing until the occupant responded. This profession emerged during the Industrial Revolution when strict work schedules became necessary. Similar roles existed in France and Italy, where workers shouted to wake people. Natural signals like sunlight and the crowing of roosters were common, though roosters have their own internal clock and do not always crow at dawn. Candle clocks, used in China as early as the 6th century AD, had nails inserted at marked intervals that would fall onto a plate when the wax melted. In East Asia, incense clocks burned at about 5 cm per hour, burning a silk thread that released metal balls into a container to make a noise. In the 1980s, Italians without an alarm clock could dial 114 on their home phone to request a wake-up call from the state telephone company SIP, a service that foreshadowed the integration of alarm functions into other devices.