INVENTION:Alarm Clock
INVENTOR:Levi Hutchins,U.S.
YEAR:1787
HOW INVENTED:He was a 26-year-old clock-maker in Concord,N.H.,a New Englander with a Yankee conscience.He believed in being at his job on time.It was his "firm rule" to awaken at 4 A.M.,whatever the season.But sometimes he slept past that hour,and was distraught the rest of the day.What he wished was a device to rouse him at the exact hour he desired to be up.In past times,people had often depended upon the sun to awaken them.But in New England,at 4 o'clock in the morning,there was no sun.Then this clockmaker looked at his shelves of clocks and was inspired.As he would write,"It was the idea of a clock that could sound an alarm that was difficult,not the execution of the idea.It was simplicity itself to arrange for the bell to sound at the predetermined hour."
He constructed a pine cabinet 29"X14",transferred the inner mechanism of one of his large brass clocks into it,inserted a pinion or gear.When "the minute hand of the clock reached and tripped the pinion" at 4 o'clock,then the "movement of the pinion set a bell in motion,and the bell made sufficient noise to awaken me almost instantly."
Hutchins lived to the age of 94.He never bothered to patent or mass-produce his alarm clock.He wasn't interested in money.He was just interested in not oversleeping.He achieved his ambition.
