The alarm clock has become an essential part of our morning. Without this little monster most of us would struggle to get out of bed on time in the morning or after a quick nap in the afternoon. Even though we hate the sound in the morning, it is hard to imagen how our ancestors manged to wake up at the right time without it. To find out how the alarm clock was invented we have to look for its origin in Greece. None other than the ancient Greek philosopher Plato is said to have possess one of the first alarm clocks. He used the water clock, which already existed back to 4000 B.C. with an added alarm signal, sadly the mechanics of this alarm system were never specified in any documents. Roughly 200 years later (250 B.C.) the Hellenistic engineer and inventor Ctesibius added another elaborate alarm system to the water clock. He forced bell-jars down into water and used the compressed air to create a sound by pushing it through a trumpet. The system was so advanced that the sound would come different pre-set times. In the year 529 public striking clocks were invented. This was useful for the overall population to coordinate their days. However, it took a long time until finally the French inventor Antoine Redier got the patent for an adjustable mechanical alarm clock in 1847. Over the years more and more alarm clocks got produced, until with the industrialization most households needed and effort one. Today alarm clocks exist in numerous variations from the classical mechanical to the integrated one in your phone.
