question: How did people wake up on time before alarm clocks were invented?
comment: There used to be Knocker-Uppers who would go around waking people up. URL_0
passages: User-settable mechanical alarm clocks date back at least to 15th-century Europe. These early alarm clocks had a ring of holes in the clock dial and were set by placing a pin in the appropriate hole.
  
  The first American alarm clock was created by Levi Hutchins, of New Hampshire, in 1787. This device he made only for himself however, and it only rang at 4 AM, in order to wake him for his job. The French inventor Antoine Redier was the first to patent an adjustable mechanical alarm clock, in 1847.
   Ruth Belville's father, John Henry Belville, created a service for 200 clients in 1836. Each morning, John Henry went to Greenwich Observatory, where he worked, and set his watch to Greenwich Mean Time. He would then set off in his buggy and would set the clocks correctly for clients subscribed to the service.
   In China, a striking clock was devised by the Buddhist monk and inventor Yi Xing (683–727). The Chinese engineers Zhang Sixun and Su Song integrated striking clock mechanisms in astronomical clocks in the 10th and 11th centuries, respectively. A striking clock outside of China was the water-powered clock tower near the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, which struck once every hour. It was constructed by the Arab engineer al-Kaysarani in 1154. In 1235, an early monumental water-powered alarm clock that "announced the appointed hours of prayer and the time both by day and by night" was completed in the entrance hall of the Mustansiriya Madrasah in Baghdad.
   During the 1600s, when metal was harder to come by in the colonies than wood, works for many American clocks were made of wood, including the gears, which were whittled and fashioned by hand, as were all other parts. There is some evidence that wooden clocks were being made as early as 1715 near New Haven, Connecticut. Benjamin Cheney of East Hartford, Connecticut, was producing wooden striking clocks by 1745. David Rittenhouse constructed a clock with wooden gears around 1749 while living on a farm near Philadelphia at the age of 17.
   The first radio alarm clock was invented by James F. Reynolds, in the 1940s and another design was also invented by Paul L. Schroth Sr.
  
  Section::::Clock radio.
   The late Roman statesman Cassiodorus (c. 485–585) advocated in his rulebook for monastic life the water clock as a useful alarm for the 'soldiers of Christ' (Cassiod. Inst. 30.4 f.). The Christian rhetorician Procopius described in detail prior to 529 a complex public striking clock in his home town Gaza which featured an hourly gong and figures moving mechanically day and night.
   Water clocks, or clepsydrae, were commonly used in ancient Greece following their introduction by Plato, who also invented a water-based alarm clock. One account of Plato's alarm clock describes it as depending on the nightly overflow of a vessel containing lead balls, which floated in a columnar vat. The vat held a steadily increasing amount of water, supplied by a cistern. By morning, the vessel would have floated high enough to tip over, causing the lead balls to cascade onto a copper platter. The resultant clangor would then awaken Plato's students at the Academy. Another possibility is that it comprised two jars, connected by a siphon. Water emptied until it reached the siphon, which transported the water to the other jar. There, the rising water would force air through a whistle, sounding an alarm. The Greeks and Chaldeans regularly maintained timekeeping records as an essential part of their astronomical observations.
   Around 1700, the Harrison family moved to the Lincolnshire village of Barrow upon Humber. Following his father's trade as a carpenter, Harrison built and repaired clocks in his spare time. Legend has it that at the age of six, while in bed with smallpox, he was given a watch to amuse himself and he spent hours listening to it and studying its moving parts.
   Not a servant so faithful he found;br
  
  For it wasted no time, and had but one desire —br
  
  At the close of each week to be wound.br
  
  And it kept in its place — not a frown upon its face,br
  
  And its hands never hung by its side.br
  
  But it stopped short — never to go again —br
  
  When the old man died.
  
  br
  
  It rang an alarm in the dead of the night —br
  
  An alarm that for years had been dumb;br
  
  And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight —br
   On the other hand, in 1669 Domenico Martinelli, in his handbook on elementary clocks "Horologi Elementari", suggests using the call of the cuckoo to indicate the hours. Starting at that time the mechanism of the cuckoo clock was known. Any mechanic or clockmaker, who could read Latin or Italian, knew after reading the books that it was feasible to have the cuckoo announce the hours.
   Clocks can range from watches, to more exotic varieties such as the Clock of the Long Now. They can be driven by a variety of means, including gravity, springs, and various forms of electrical power, and regulated by a variety of means such as a pendulum.
  
  Alarm clocks first appeared in ancient Greece around 250 BC with a water clock that would set off a whistle. This idea was later mechanized by Levi Hutchins and Seth E. Thomas.
   Knocker-up
  
  A knocker-up, sometimes known as a knocker-upper, was
  
  a profession in Britain and Ireland that started during and lasted well into the Industrial Revolution, when alarm clocks were neither cheap nor reliable, and to as late as the beginning of the 1920s. A knocker-up's job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. 
   During the 1600s, when metal was harder to come by in the colonies than wood, works for many American clocks were made of wood, including the gears, which were whittled and fashioned by hand, as were all other parts. There is some evidence that wooden clocks were being made as early as 1715 near New Haven, Connecticut. Benjamin Cheney of East Hartford, Connecticut, was producing wooden striking clocks by 1745, eight years before Banneker completed his own wooden striking clock in 1753. David Rittenhouse constructed a clock with wooden gears around 1749 while living on a farm near Philadelphia at the age of 17.
   Today, many humans wake up with an alarm clock; however, people can also reliably wake themselves up at a specific time with no need for an alarm. Many sleep quite differently on workdays versus days off, a pattern which can lead to chronic circadian desynchronization. Many people regularly look at television and other screens before going to bed, a factor which may exacerbate disruption of the circadian cycle. Scientific studies on sleep have shown that sleep stage at awakening is an important factor in amplifying sleep inertia.
  
  Section::::Timing.
   Section::::Timekeeping innovations in medieval and pre-modern periods.:Early mechanical clocks and watches.
  
  The earliest medieval European clockmakers were Catholic monks. Medieval religious institutions required clocks because they regulated daily prayer- and work-schedules strictly, using various types of time-telling and recording devices, such as water clocks, sundials and marked candles, probably in combination. When mechanical clocks came into use, they were often wound at least twice a day to ensure accuracy. Monasteries broadcast important times and durations with bells, rung either by hand or by a mechanical device, such as by a falling weight or by rotating beater.
   The ancient Greek philosopher Plato (428–348 BC) was said to possess a large water clock with an unspecified alarm signal similar to the sound of a water organ; he used it at night, possibly for signaling the beginning of his lectures at dawn (Athenaeus 4.174c). The Hellenistic engineer and inventor Ctesibius (fl. 285–222 BC) fitted his clepsydras with dial and pointer for indicating the time, and added elaborate "alarm systems, which could be made to drop pebbles on a gong, or blow trumpets (by forcing bell-jars down into water and taking the compressed air through a beating reed) at pre-set times" (Vitruv 11.11).
   Section::::Timekeeping innovations in medieval and pre-modern periods.
  
  The term 'clock' encompasses a wide spectrum of devices, ranging from wristwatches to the Clock of the Long Now. The English word "clock" is said to derive from the Middle English "clokke", Old North French "cloque", or Middle Dutch "clocke", all of which mean "bell", and are derived from the Medieval Latin "clocca", also meaning bell. Indeed, bells were used to mark the passage of time; they marked the passage of the hours at sea and in abbeys.
   Throughout history, clocks have had a variety of power sources, including gravity, springs, and electricity. Mechanical clocks became widespread in the 14th century, when they were used in medieval monasteries to keep the regulated schedule of prayers. The clock continued to be improved, with the first pendulum clock being designed and built in the 17th century.
  
  Section::::Timekeeping innovations in medieval and pre-modern periods.:Candle clocks.
   The earliest known clock with a water-powered escapement mechanism, which transferred rotational energy into intermittent motions, dates back to 3rd century in ancient Greece; Chinese engineers later invented clocks incorporating mercury-powered escapement mechanisms in the 10th century, followed by Iranian engineers inventing water clocks driven by gears and weights in the 11th century.
   Section::::Timekeeping devices of early civilizations.
   According to seafaring legend, the ship's cooks and boatswain's mates had a duty arrangement to give the cooks more sleep. The boatswain's mates, who worked 24 hours a day on watches, would build the fire in the stove, so the cook could get up a little while later and the fire would be already going so he could begin preparing breakfast. In return, between meals, the cooks would shine the bell, which was traditionally the boatswain's mates' responsibility.
  
  Section::::Baptizing children.
   The first known mention is of those created by the Roman engineer Vitruvius, describing early alarm clocks working with gongs or trumpets. Later automatons usually perform on the hour, half-hour or quarter-hour, usually to strike bells. Common figures in older clocks include Death (as a reference to human mortality), Old Father Time, saints and angels. In the Regency and Victorian eras, common figures also included royalty, famous composers or industrialists.
   Section::::Timekeeping devices of early civilizations.:Ancient Greece and Rome.
   Henry Edward's "Old English Customs: Curious Requests and Charities" mentions the bell-ringer appointed by John Beddoes in 1565 to ring a 'day bell' at 8am, and a curfew at 8pm. Beddoes specified that in the event of the custom being abandoned for more than a year, (except in plagues) the funds set aside for this position would revert to his heirs.
  
  Beddoes - a wool merchant - also gave his name to Presteigne's secondary school - John Beddoes School - which he established in 1565, and endowed with land.
  
  Section::::History.:World War 2.
   Thomas Tompion was the first English clockmaker with an international reputation and many of his pupils went on to become great horologists in their own right, such as George Graham who invented the deadbeat escapement, orrery and mercury pendulum, and his pupil Thomas Mudge who created the first lever escapement. Famous clockmakers of this period included Joseph Windmills, Simon de Charmes who established the De Charmes clockmaker firm and Christopher Pinchbeck who invented the alloy pinchbeck.
  
raw_presuppositions: You need an alarm clock to wake up on time.
raw_corrections: There were Knocker-Uppers who would go around waking people up.