PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
617 Stokes Road, Suite 108 Medford, NJ 08055 StevenEllmanLaw.com 609-362-5933
Inside This Issue The Road to a Second Chance Starts With the Right DUI Lawyer page 1 Who Knew Eating Could Get You in Legal Trouble? page 2 Don’t Let a DUI Ruin Your Holiday Cheer page 2 Qualities to Look for in a Top DUI Attorney page 3 What Our Clients Are Saying page 3 What Snooze Button? The Ingenious Ways People Used to Wake Up page 4
GETTING OUT OF BED LONG BEFORE THE SNOOZE BUTTON Before Smartphones, There Was Water
Members of Generation Z may find it difficult to believe that people used plug-in alarm clocks to help them get up on time in the morning. However, that seemingly archaic means of timekeeping has nothing on how people managed wake-up time before cellphones — and even electricity, as we use it today — became staples of daily life. In the 4th century BCE, the Greek philosopher Plato created a method to ensure students at his academy — which once counted Aristotle among its pupils — woke up at the correct time each day. To perfect a foolproof system, he turned to a surprising tool: water. He constructed a set of clocks that operated using two basins. One basin would slowly empty into the other throughout the night; when the second basin was full, rattling pebbles or whistling air awakened students from their slumber. Known as klepsydra (or “water thief”) clocks, these timekeepers were astonishingly accurate.
About a century later, Greek inventor Ctesibius of Alexandria expanded on Plato’s design by incorporating mechanics that produced sounds not unlike those of the more modern cuckoo clock. Ctesibius’s version remained popular until the pendulum clock emerged in the 1650s. Although Plato often gets credit for creating aquatic-based alarms, some variation of the klepsydra concept allegedly dates back to at least the 16th century BCE. Archaeologists uncovered a tomb inscription detailing how an Egyptian court official of the era devised a similar system. Regardless of its definitive inventor, the water clock roused people long before phone apps — proving that nature often provides solutions to problems centuries before human technology catches up.
While the water clock was undoubtedly an imaginative masterstroke, it is still reasonable to argue that the “snooze” button remains the most critical time-related creation known to man.
4 | StevenEllmanLaw.com
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator