In the days before alarm clocks, how did people wake up?

[zuma]

@NightRabbit

I’ve been thinking about this during the last couple of days, and I feel like there must be an obvious answer. There have always been jobs that require one to be at a certain place at a certain time, laborer positions, shop assistants, etc. Wikipedia says that the first patented mechanical alarm clock came about in 1847. However, this wouldn’t immediately be accessible to everyone.

All I can think of is that there was some long-obsolete profession of “professional wakers”, maybe people who intentionally put themselves on a nocturnal schedule and charge a fee for going about the city and waking people up at a certain time? Was there a town crier who walked the streets at 6am and rang a bell? Did church bells wake people?

Being one rather dependent on an alarm clock myself (I’ve never been able to “naturally” wake up at the same time every day), I’m rather curious. Anyone know how this used to work?

Back in those days, people had as many as 4 to 5 kids. That would be a good alarm clock, I think.

[KneadToKnow]

@nofloyd

One technique I use if I need to be up significantly earlier than my set point is to drink a glass of water before bed. Bladder pressure will rouse me 2 hours earlier.

I think this technique plays a larger role in answering the OP than most of us think, frankly.

[Don_t_Panic]

@zuma

Back in those days, people had as many as 4 to 5 kids. That would be a good alarm clock, I think.

“Hello, is this the knocker-up? I have a complaint. When I made an appointment to be knocked up once every week, I didn’t mean this.”

[Hostile_Dialect]

@chowder

sometimes his employers would pay, sometimes the people he knocked up.

In the US, the knocker-up pays the people he knocks up.

(It might be helpful to know that in American English, “knock up” means “impregnate”.)

[BarnOwl]

What about people back in the old days going out after supper to drink at the pubs at night? Didn’t they stay up late - after midnight, perhaps?

Weren’t the ancient Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Egyptians, et al, star gazers? I doubt these folks went to bed at 8 or 9 pm all the time.

What other occupations/activities can you think of that would keep people up at night back in the old or ancient days?

[Chez_Guevara]

@qwest

I can confirm that with first hand knowledge. I lived in Nunavut just south of the arctic circle for about 2.5 years.

Very cool post, thanks.

[silenus]

@KneadToKnow

I think this technique plays a larger role in answering the OP than most of us think, frankly.

That’s an old soldiers trick that dates back centuries. I’ve heard that Native Americans used it as well.

I watched the aforementioned “Connections” episode just last month. Water clocks date back to late Roman times.

[UltraVires]

@BarnOwl

What about people back in the old days going out after supper to drink at the pubs at night? Didn’t they stay up late - after midnight, perhaps?

Weren’t the ancient Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Egyptians, et al, star gazers? I doubt these folks went to bed at 8 or 9 pm all the time.

What other occupations/activities can you think of that would keep people up at night back in the old or ancient days?

Well, we probably should qualify this with what time period we are talking about.

Also, as is true today, most people usually don’t go out to the pubs and pound booze until after midnight when they have to go to work the next day. It happens, but even in this day and time with electric alarm clocks, heavy alcohol use is associated with absenteeism at work.

And while the ancients had their share of scientists and astronomers, those were most likely the wealthy who didn’t need to be at a job the next morning. Most people at the time did their best to keep the larger clumps of donkey shit off of them and not die of disease instead of studying the stars…

[Annie-Xmas]

How many ancient people had to punch a time clock? If you work on a farm, you can start and stop at any time. Church bells were rung on the Sabbath to get the congregation up in time for services, but wouldn’t most daily activities not be ruled by the clock?

[CC]

I can’t believe that I’ve made it to the bottom (so far) of the thread without some other adolescent man-child questioning why the plural of knocker-up isn’t knockers-up. Wasn’t that the name of an old Belle Barth party record? I love this bbs.

[ElvisL1ves]

If they needed to get up early, they’d drink some water before going to bed. Still works today.

[VernWinterbottom]

@BarnOwl

What about people back in the old days going out after supper to drink at the pubs at night? Didn’t they stay up late - after midnight, perhaps?

Public houses, being business establishments, probably could afford to burn more candles and “midnight oil.” The farther back in time one goes, though, the less I think we see of leisure time the way it is today. Far too much time was spent simply surviving.

One other thing about time in general. Until the 1800s in America, when the railroads started trying to standardize time for the purpose of keeping schedules, local time varied considerably. Today one time zone covers an hours worth of earth rotation with 8:00 p.m. being an hour different light-wise on the east edge of the time zone as opposed to the west edge of the same zone. Before the establishment of standard time zones, local time was reckoned more by setting noon at the sun’s high point in any given location. The time in towns could vary by ten or twenty minutes or more within a single state.

But before the railroads, there was really no need for time to be standardized. Communication wasn’t fast enough for it to matter. In my town in southeastern Massachusetts the residents did not learn of George Washington’s death until nine days after the fact, and this was a busy seaport.

[Siam_Sam]

@CC

I can’t believe that I’ve made it to the bottom (so far) of the thread without some other adolescent man-child questioning why the plural of knocker-up isn’t knockers-up. Wasn’t that the name of an old Belle Barth party record? I love this bbs.

And why isn’t the person called a “knocker-upper”?

[Siam_Sam]

[QUOTE=chowder]

@Siam Sam

To turn in late for work meant the sack…on the spot

Once word got around that you were unreliable you’d have a bloody hard time finding work and in days of yore there was no unemployment benefits

Knocked up … in the sack … “hard” time … Say, thought you Brits were all staid stodgy and everything. Sounds like lots of shenanigans going on in the workplace.

[Sleel]

Relevant article: Night Life
Book by the man about whom that article was written: At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past

[chowder]

[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect]
In the US, the knocker-up pays the people he knocks up.

In Soviet Russia, knocker-up pays you

[Rayne_Man]

@Chez Guevara

Very astute.

No less an authority than Wikipedia describes the duties of a knocker-up, like so:

In addition to the long stick, a pea shooter was another favoured means of rousing folks from their slumbers.

One of the many trades in the pottery industry is the saggar makers bottom knocker . Many years ago on the TV panel game What’s My line? they had a guy who was a sagger makers bottom knocker knocker-upper. Of course the panelist didn’t guess the right answer!

[NightRabbit]

@Rayne Man

One of the many trades in the pottery industry is the saggar makers bottom knocker . Many years ago on the TV panel game What’s My line? they had a guy who was a sagger makers bottom knocker knocker-upper. Of course the panelist didn’t guess the right answer!

Wow, that’s the most esoteric game show answer I’ve ever heard…

Thanks for the info, guys! I’m going to try that water-drinking experiment for a few days and see what it yields… (since I’m currently looking for a job, I have some morning flexibility for exactly this type of science… )

[chowder]

[QUOTE=NightRabbit]

Thanks for the info, guys! I’m going to try that water-drinking experiment for a few days and see what it yields

Betcha a fiver it’ll yield urine

[Myglaren]

@susan

I wake up at the time I want to. I usually turn off the alarm before it rings.

Me too, except for one day in December when my grandson switched the alarm clock off and I arrived for work two hours late where I am usually half an hour early.

Nobody noticed.