You wouldn't think that alarm clocks were worthy of any great attention. I mean they work or they don't, you'd think, but nevertheless a couple of clock-related stories spring to mind. Of course, I may already be talking to a generation for whom the term "alarm clock" is as archaic as the term "phonograph". But yes, it's true at one time feature-rich meant a clock with a bell.
When first I went to live in Manchester, I lived in genuine old-fashioned lodgings. I was an apprentice at AEI in Trafford Park, and I shared a large attic room with two other apprentices: Duncan MacLeish and Brian Graham Lewis. We used to have to start work at 7:45 a.m. Duncan had a scooter, and he and Brian went to work on that. I went on my bike, which meant I had to get up a few minutes before the others, at about 6:30. I had an alarm clock, but my bed was in that corner of the room most distant from the door, where the light switch was. I conceived the idea of attaching a string to the switch, so that when I woke I would pull the string and turn on the light. This worked OK, until Brian decided it would be amusing to reach out in the darkness, and cut the string. We were engineers, and I quickly invented a more automated solution. This was to balance my alarm clock on the edge of a wardrobe next to the door, with a string attached to its alarm winder, in such a way that when the alarm went off the whole clock was pulled off the wardrobe. A second string attached the clock to the light switch, so the weight of the falling clock turned the light on. A third string brought the clock up short before it hit the floor. I don't recall how long this arrangement was in use, or whether it lasted till spring daylight made it unnecessary, but it defeated Brian Graham Lewis who wasn't prepared to crawl out of bed to defeat it.
The second alarm clock arrangement I had was one which created my first radio alarm. This was some years later, the winter of 1967/8. My radios were always pretty battered, and at that point I had a transistor set which was really only the "mother board", being entirely devoid of a case. I also had an alarm clock which had no glass, so that its hands were exposed. I was still getting up at some ungodly hour, and I decided it would be great if I could get the radio to come on automatically. I connected the clock into the battery circuit, and fixed a contact at the 6:30 point, so that when the hour hand reached there the circuit was "made" and the radio came on. Absolutely ace.
When first I went to live in Manchester, I lived in genuine old-fashioned lodgings. I was an apprentice at AEI in Trafford Park, and I shared a large attic room with two other apprentices: Duncan MacLeish and Brian Graham Lewis. We used to have to start work at 7:45 a.m. Duncan had a scooter, and he and Brian went to work on that. I went on my bike, which meant I had to get up a few minutes before the others, at about 6:30. I had an alarm clock, but my bed was in that corner of the room most distant from the door, where the light switch was. I conceived the idea of attaching a string to the switch, so that when I woke I would pull the string and turn on the light. This worked OK, until Brian decided it would be amusing to reach out in the darkness, and cut the string. We were engineers, and I quickly invented a more automated solution. This was to balance my alarm clock on the edge of a wardrobe next to the door, with a string attached to its alarm winder, in such a way that when the alarm went off the whole clock was pulled off the wardrobe. A second string attached the clock to the light switch, so the weight of the falling clock turned the light on. A third string brought the clock up short before it hit the floor. I don't recall how long this arrangement was in use, or whether it lasted till spring daylight made it unnecessary, but it defeated Brian Graham Lewis who wasn't prepared to crawl out of bed to defeat it.
The second alarm clock arrangement I had was one which created my first radio alarm. This was some years later, the winter of 1967/8. My radios were always pretty battered, and at that point I had a transistor set which was really only the "mother board", being entirely devoid of a case. I also had an alarm clock which had no glass, so that its hands were exposed. I was still getting up at some ungodly hour, and I decided it would be great if I could get the radio to come on automatically. I connected the clock into the battery circuit, and fixed a contact at the 6:30 point, so that when the hour hand reached there the circuit was "made" and the radio came on. Absolutely ace.
