Alarm clock
The digital tour in the Saarland Clock Museum was made possible by the support of:
Before industrialization, people in the countryside were awakened by the sun, animals, or earlier awakening members of the farm. In the cities this was done by the city noise, church bells, tower keepers and night watchmen. In the absence of precise clocks, any scheduling was handled relatively loosely.
In the military, guards have had to watch clocks since ancient times to ensure that the other soldiers were awakened. In imperial Rome this was the job of slaves in wealthy households. As the developing business life brought fixed appointments and the emergence of industrialization brought about the adherence to fixed working hours, reliable alarm methods became more and more important.
This made the alarm clock the first clock that the non-affluent population also needed.
The alarm clock
At the beginning of the 14th century, automatic alarm devices with gear trains were the forerunners of the clock with a time display, since in the Christian area - as in many other religions - prayers of the hour are common. The monks, who took on the task of blacksmithing in the monasteries, were the forerunners of clockmakers.
The wake-up device, e.g. a bell was triggered with pivots or pins. When the clock got a dial from around 1340, the alarm time was set with a pin on a disc that was mounted in front of the dial and was triggered by the hour hand. A setting hand followed as the third hand, and it was only later that the alarm time could be set from the back.
