Clock Tips

Everyday we get from one place to another, rushing to and from along our busy action-packed day. Ok so some days are a bore but we need to go through them anyway for each day, dark makes way for light and brand new possibilities await. But first, we must get out of bed.

Our altered consciousness in slumber cannot tell time and to be able to rouse from sleep in the morning in time for work, an alarm clock comes in handy. There are different kinds of ingenious alarm clock designs available in the market assured to get even the laziest person out of bed.

What makes you tick?

Alarm clock shopping is fun because you will find out just how creative the options are out there. There are talking alarm clocks and there are alarm clocks with shrill alarming noises designed to rouse you from the deepest slumber. There are also alarm clocks that escalate its alarms as you keep hitting the “snooze” button assuring that you do not miss the alarms. For the hopeless procrastinator, there is an alarm clock designed to roll off the table when the snooze button is hit so that when it alarms again, the clock and inadvertently its snooze button will be out of reach and its alarm will continue to crack until you get out of bed and find the clock.

Versatility and mobility

Something that jump starts your day like the alarm clock is important enough to keep handy all through out the day to make sure you’re kept on time for all the important activities of the day.

Yes while you cannot drag your bulky bedside alarm clock with you since it hardly becomes the image of a successful business person, rest assured that you have an alarm clock with you anyway.

Yes, almost every single digital gadget has a built in alarm clock to keep you on time all the time for daily tasks.

The calendar

Every digital gadget you have with you is bound to have a calendar with an alarm function. Input your schedule into the digital calendar and set alarms for yourself so you’ll never miss a thing again. Your mobile phone and PDA will have this function. It’s there for a reason. Use it.

Software for your hardware

If you’re stuck at or around the vicinity of your desk and you’re too absorbed to notice the passing of time, there are also alarm clock software available for installation in your PC. There are even built-in alarm functions in some Office-based programs because their developers realize the very important function of the alarm clock.

Sliced bread

A lot of people attribute sliced bread as one of the best of man’s inventions. Of course, there’s the wheel and the harnessing of the power of fire along with the countless list but alarm clocks definitely deserve its place in that roster for its invaluable contribution to society. We have come a long way from depending on nature’s natural alarms to tell time. Now we have harnessed the precision and convenience of alarms into tiny versatile and mobile gadgets that help us tell time and keep it. So the next time you open your eyes to a new day after being roused by your very dependable alarm clock, don’t forget to realize the history and importance of this gadget in your life. Your alarm clock will continuously serve you with a not so silent dignity as long as you don’t forget to keep the batteries fresh.

About the author:

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides alarm clock resources on www.justalarmclocks.info

Written By: Robert Thatcher

Louis Essen was born in 1908 in a small city in England called Nottingham. His childhood was typical of the time and he pursued his education with enjoyment and dedication. At the age of 20 Louis graduated from the University of Nottingham, where he had been studying. It was at this time that his career started to take off, as he was invited to join the NPL, or National Physics Laboratory.

It was during Louiss time at the NPL that he began working to develop a quartz crystal oscillator as he believed they were capable of measuring time as accurately as a pendulum based clock. Ten years after joining the NPL Louis had invented the Essen ring. This was an eponymous invention which took its name from the shape of the quartz which Louis had used in his latest clock and which was three times more accurate than the previous versions.

Louis soon moved on to newer areas of research and began to study ways to measure the speed of light. During World War II he began to work on high frequency radar and used his technical ability to develop the cavity resonance wavemeter. From 1946 it was this wavemeter which he used, along with a colleague by the name of Albert Gordon-Smith, to make his lightspeed measurements. It has been acknowledged recently that Louiss measurements were by far the most accurate to have been recorded up until that time.

During the early part of the 1950s Louis began to take an interest in research which was being carried out at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in the United States of America. He learnt that work was being carried out to invent a clock which was more accurate than any other. The American scientists were using the idea of maintaining a clocks accuracy by using the radiation emitted or absorbed by atoms. At that time the Americans were using a molecule of ammonia but Louis felt that this was not working as well as if they were using different atoms, such as hydrogen or caesium, and so he began working on his own clock using these materials instead.

1953 saw Louis and a colleague, Jack Parry, receiving permission to develop an atomic clock at the NPL based on Louiss existing knowledge of quartz crystal oscillators and other relevant techniques he had learned from the cavity resonance wavemeter he had previously designed. Only two years later Louis’s first atomic clock was running, Caesium I, designed by the UK scientists. Development in the United States had all but stopped due to political difficulties.

Louis continued to work on his atomic clock and by 1964 he had managed to increase the accuracy of the atomic clock from one second in 300 years to one second every 2000 years! The continued success of Louiss work resulted in the definition of a second being changed from 1/864000 of a mean solar day to being calculated as the time it took for 9192631770 cycles of the radiation in an atomic clock.

Louis Essen died in 1997 and before his death had been honoured with, amongst others, an OBE and the Tompion Gold Medal of the Clockmakers Company.

About The Author

Steve Gink uses atomic clocks, you can find his articles about them at atomic clocks or visit www.atomic-clocks.org the site contains information about atomic clocks and some images.

steve.gink@gmail.com

Written By: Steve Gink

We have a lot of clocks in our home. Most of them make some sort of noise on the hour (steam trains, cartoon characters, birds,
dogs, horses, wild animals; I’m not kidding!), some of them on the half-hour as well, and one that even chimes on the quarter hour. We just like clocks. Needless to say, we are usually aware of the time! Some of my favorites are the cuckoo clocks that we purchased on a trip to the Black Forest, and they needed some TLC: cleaning, oiling, and adjusting.

Enter Skip, the clock repairman who believes in the long-lost art of house calls. He took the clocks back to his shop and fixed them up beautifully. When he returned them, he placed them back on the wall with loving care and proceeded to explain the “proper” way to wind them.

1. Be sure to pull straight down or the chain can come off of the gear or the weight may bang against the wall, leaving a mark.

2. Pull only one chain at a time because pulling more than one at a time
a) causes the chains to be pulled at an angle and
b) puts too much stress on the hanger on the wall and/or the back of the clock.

3. Don’t pull them too quickly because they may come off of their gears.

4. When setting the clock it is better to turn the hands counter clock-wise because of the nature of the internal mechanism.

…and so on, and so forth. For about 15 minutes, Skip explained the finer points of something that seemed so simple and so
obvious, that I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

It recently dawned on me that this experience serves as a great illustration of two important points. First of all, the importance of education; there is always a “right” way and a “wrong” way to do just about anything, regardless of how simple and obvious it may seem. It is unlikely that what you are trying to do in your business has never been tried before. Why suffer through the mistakes that others have made when they did what you are doing? Do everything you can to learn from other people’s experience and save yourself the grief of repeating their mistakes. I used to pull all three chains at once; it never occurred to me that the back of the clock could break under the strain. He’s seen it happen. I’m glad that I learned from his experience before the clock came crashing down because a), the falling clock would probably break the glass table beneath it, b) I might be physically injured if hit by the clock or flying glass and c), I cherish my clocks and would hate to lose one. Find seminars, classes, tapes, books, or websites that can help you avoid the avoidable. Your time and money will be well spent.

The other important point is that you can learn and grow from the most unlikely places. Keep your eyes and ears open; you just
never know when a “Skip” will waltz into your life for even a brief moment and leave you with a tidbit that will change you forever.

About the Author

“Make More Money and Have More Fun” with your small business! Dave will show you how with his FREE newsletter, “Big Bucks in a Bathrobe” sent by e-mail. Visit http://www.TheStayAtHomeCEO.com Comments and/or questions are always welcome at 1-800-366-2347 or Dave@DaveBalch.com.

Written By: Dave Balch