#47: An Old-Fashioned Alarm Clock

Most of us use the pre-installed alarm clock on our phones to wake up in the morning. We take this piece of technology for granted. Alarm clocks have been around for so long in one form or another that most of us don’t even think about how people would wake themselves up before electricity was a thing. Now that we think about it, what did people do before electric alarm clocks?

Humans are nothing if not resourceful. Before clocks and loud alarms, people would use candles and nails. People would stick nails into their bedside candles before they went to bed. They would stick the nails in according to the candle’s burn time. After the designated amount of hours, the candle would burn down, allowing the nail to fall on the table. The sound of the nail falling would wake people up. Pretty genius, if not a little dangerous. Who would have thought?