Domestic mechanical alarm clock
Despertador mecánico doméstico
- Date
- 1787 · confidence medium
- Place
- Concord, New Hampshire, United States
- Credited to
- Levi Hutchins
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A clock with a bell that rings at a set time, devised by Levi Hutchins to wake up at 4 a.m. It became a common household object once it was made adjustable.
Clocks with alarms exist in the 15th-16th centuries (Europe) and Plato is said to have used a water alarm; Hutchins made his for his own use and the patent for the adjustable alarm is Redier's (1847).
What it led to
- working-time punctuality in industry with regular hours
- the adjustable alarm clock of the Frenchman Antoine Redier in 1847
- battery, quartz and radio alarm clocks