Industrial Revolution (Europe, United States, elsewhere)
(1700 and 1900)
What happened?
The Industrial Revolution marked a period of development during the 18th and 19th century. Rural, agrarian societies in Europe and America transformed into industrialized, urban ones. Products that had always been crafted by hand started to be produced in mass quantities by machines in factories due to the introduction of machines and techniques in textiles, iron making and other industries.
The use of steam power changed everything. The Industrial Revolution started in Britain and spread to the rest of the world. Historians often refer to this time as the first Industrial Revolution. Stating that the period of industrialization took place in the 19th and 20th centuries with rapid steel, electric and automobile industries. The Industrial Revolution also led to an unprecedented rise of population growth.
Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution. The textile industry was the first to use modern production methods. Many technological innovations were of British origin. By the mid-18th century Britain was the world’s leading commercial nation, controlling a global trading empire with colonies in North America and the Caribbean? The development of trade and the rise of business were among the major causes during that period. Due to this growth, the price of products fell dramatically, so that more and more people could afford them. This turnaround proved irreversible, first in Europe and later in the rest of the world.
Almost every aspect of daily life was in some way influenced. The standard of living for the general population in the western world began to increase. The factory system meant a completely different way of working. Because the means of production were beyond the reach of the workers, industrial relations also changed. The labor was carried out as wage labor and the workers lost their independence. They were now bound by the factory’s working hours, which placed different demands on the work ethic. Living and working have completely separated. The working environment and work rhythm therefor changed drastically with the introduction of the factory system. The system had an impact on administration by organizing office work in a similar way.
The industry disappeared from the villages. Many villagers chased labor towards the factories and greatly increased urbanization. The rural exodus began as soon as the demographic transition came to an end. Where people in the past followed the rhythm of the days and seasons, they were bound by time to coordinate actions or services.
Workers required little knowledge and skills to work in the factory. In addition to men, women and children were also deployed, unhindered by regulations in a period when laisser-faire politics dominated. The work could be dirty and unhealthy and decreased life expectancy. People regularly fled in drink or faith. Social changes were reflected in religious adjustments and innovations. The problem of social change was elaborated by Marx in Das Kapital. He envisioned the end of capitalism after which there would be a society of equality, communism. The social question improved after a few generations. The formation of trade unions enforced shorter working hours, higher salaries and better working conditions. The government ended child labor. Children were no longer a source of income which reduced the need for offspring. The introduction of compulsory education meant that a major change for women were given more opportunities. People ended up living healthier than before industrialization.
In Walnut with Handle. Found: Dio-et-Valquiéres, Languedoc-Roussillon, France (JN0123)
Alarm Clock
± 1800 to ± 1900
Plato (427 BC – 347 BC), in Ancient Greece, is said to have adjusted a water clock so that after a certain time a blast of air was forced through a whistle.
Titus Maccius Plautus (251BC-184 BC), comedy writer, wrote that the Romans already complained about the sundial, the clock of his days, which, for example, "prescribed" when it was dinner time.
There was little need for an alarm clock during the Middle Ages. Working in the dark also made little sense because there was hardly any lighting. Working hours were therefore much less strict than now (2021). An exception were the monasteries, where the various hours of prayer were strictly required.
Samuel Pepeys (1633-1703), English state servant, wrote in a diary that he was awakened by singing blackbird. While he only gets up when it got light.
This changed drastically because of the Industrial Revolution. Factories were established that ran on a tight schedule. Gas lighting pushed the limits of the night. No longer the sun, but the factory determined when work had to be done. Man only had to adapt. The world was ready for the alarm clock. Not everyone trusted the invention blindly. The knocker-up, a new profession, went from door to door for a small fee to wake the residents. He or she (relatively many women did this work) was armed with a long poke stick so that the higher windows could also be knocked on. Not everyone was happy with it, a good knocker-up made so much noise that not only his customers, but the entire neighborhood was immediately awake. Each knocker-up gave the work its own twist. E.g., a knocker-up, Lead, rattled on the doors in the morning, also relayed the weather forecast and the latest news. Ultimately, the knocker-up lost out to the alarm clock that was becoming cheaper due to mass production.
The Frenchman Antoinne Redier patented a type of kitchen timer, in 1847, that wound up and started counting down from a pre-set number of hours. He did not indicate the time.
The Thomas Clock Company launched the first practical clock with an alarm function in 1876. Call the mother of all alarm clocks.
About 1910, few articles have such a multitude of designs as the alarm clock. E.g., the made ‘"ugaslugabed" which related to a loop to the sleeper's big toe. When it rang, the bell rang, and the alarm clock poked the toe firmly at the same time. Another important producer in 1910 was Westclox in the US. Their Big Ben excelled, with great success, in a very loud sound. There was one in most households.
The alarm clock went with the times. About 1940, the electric ones were soon on the market. The first clock radio then followed, with the snooze function a little later. Remarkable are the "disappearing" ones, motorized alarm clocks that drive away from their place after going off so that the alarm clock was only switched off after a chase.
The Goblin tea alarm clock receives an honorable mention. This device, from 1949, made a nice pot of tea before waking up.
A knocker-up in Leiden in the Netherlands, P. Colla, lasted for a long time. He was in 1969 already seventy at the time and had been a beater for fifty years. He did not like the alarm clock. In order not to oversleep, he had two alarm clocks next to his bed.
The light alarm clock is of recent date in the 21st century, the rising sunlight is simulated, if desired supported by the sound of a calming surf. Very "Zen".
Today (2021), the alarm clock in the form of the smartphone has gained a clever competitor. More often, the mobile phone is next to the bed as an alarm clock. More and more the clock seems to determine the life of man.