KNOCKER-UPPERS - UNITED STATES AND WORLDWIDE

 Before alarm clocks, how did people wake up for work on time?

In Europe the answer involves knocker‑uppers tapping windows with long poles, early‑bird workers relying on internal rhythms, and a whole toolkit of pre‑snooze‑button ingenuity. 

Before alarm clocks became common, Chicagoans used a mix of people, bells, and sheer habit to get to work on time.

In the mid-to-late 1800s, when Chicago was exploding as a railroad, meatpacking, and manufacturing city, workers often relied on:

Church bells ringing at set times. Miles away, people heard factory whistles and steam whistles that signaled shift changes. Railroad schedules, since trains operated on strict timekeeping, and their whistles became unofficial alarms for many neighborhoods.

Family members or neighbors waking one another up. Internal body clocks, developed by people who worked the same hours every day.

In some industrial cities, workers even hired "Knocker Uppers" (human alarm clocks) who went around before dawn tapping on windows with long poles until clients woke up. The profession became common during the Industrial Revolution because alarm clocks were expensive and unreliable.

For Chicago specifically, the city's massive stockyards, rail yards, and factories made steam whistles especially important. Residents often joked that they didn't need a clock because the whistles announced the workday. A packinghouse whistle at 6:00 a.m. could wake thousands of workers across entire neighborhoods.

A fun Chicago detail: before standardized time zones in 1883, different railroads and cities sometimes kept slightly different times. So a Chicagoan might wake up by a factory whistle that wasn't exactly synchronized with another clock across town. The railroads eventually pushed for standardized time to solve that problem.

So the short answer is: Before alarm clocks, most Chicagoans woke up to church bells, factory whistles, railroad whistles, family members, and well-established daily routines. A few people elsewhere even paid professional "human alarm clocks" to wake them.

In Chicago in 1893 during the World's Fair. The city must have sounded like an orchestra of steam whistles, church bells, streetcars, and train horns every morning.

WORLDWIDE KNOCKER-UPPERS

Knocker-uppers as a formal paid job were an Industrial Revolution thing.

**Core countries where the job was called a "knocker-up."

- Britain - by far the most documented. Huge numbers in industrial mill towns and dock towns: Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, East London, Oldham, Burnley, etc. The job was often done by elderly men, pregnant women, and sometimes police on early patrols to earn extra pay. 

- Ireland - same system, especially in industrial Dublin and dock areas. 

- The Netherlands - listed alongside Britain and Ireland as a core location. There's famous 1947 footage of a knocker-up still working in Leeuwarden.

- Some other countries - Wikipedia's summary uses that phrase because the practice spread wherever cheap alarm clocks weren't available yet. By the 1940s-1950s it had mostly died out, though it lingered in pockets of industrial England until the early 1970s. 

In Britain the method is well recorded: a short heavy stick to knock doors, a long light bamboo pole to reach an upper floor.

In East London the famous pea-shooter - shooting dried peas at bedroom windows. 

The idea of a human alarm clock existed independently all over the world:

Very similar jobs with different names elsewhere:

France: *réveilleur* / *réveilleur de quartier* in 19th century French cities.

Middle East & North Africa: Mesaharati / Musaharati / Al-Mussahirati: The Ramadan dawn waker who drums and calls people to eat suhoor before fasting. 

Documented as a strong tradition in many Arab countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Libya, Syria, and the Gulf, plus Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Kuwait etc. Same function - knocking doors with a stick to wake people. 

So if you're counting the English term "knocker-up" specifically: Netherlands, Britain, Ireland, and some other industrialized countries. If you're counting the job function: almost every industrial society had a version before cheap, reliable alarm clocks in the 1920s-1950s.

Thomas Edison's Illinois Footprints: A Chronological History of His Connections to the Prairie State.

Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931), Edison's relationship with Illinois is often overshadowed by his work in New Jersey and Ohio, yet the Prairie State played a recurring role in his professional life. From Chicago's rise as an electrical powerhouse to the naming of Edison Park, Illinois became both a stage and a symbol of Edison's influence. This chronological history traces those connections and reveals how deeply Edison's footprints are embedded in the state's past.

Although Edison is most often associated with Menlo Park, New Jersey, and later West Orange, his influence reached far beyond the East Coast. Illinois — particularly Chicago — played a meaningful role in Edison's professional life, public reputation, and the national reception of his inventions. From a neighborhood named with his approval to his involvement in planning the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Edison's Illinois connections form a distinct chapter in the state's technological and cultural history.

Thomas Edison - Chicago's 1893 World's Fair Electricity Building.

This article reconstructs those connections chronologically, grounding each in documented events and surviving public memory.

Chronology of Edison's Illinois Connections:
A Neighborhood Named with Edison's Blessing. In the early 1890s, residents of the small suburban community then known as Canfield sought a new identity that reflected their embrace of modern electrical infrastructure. They petitioned Thomas Edison directly, requesting permission to rename their community Edison Park in his honor.

Edison agreed.

The renaming was more than symbolic. The community promoted itself as Chicago's "first electric suburb," a place where Edison's innovations were not only admired but actively implemented.

Welcome to Edison Park,{EST. 1890}, Illinois.

Edison Park combines a small-town atmosphere with city access, maintaining consistently low crime through active Chicago neighborhood watch programs and frequent community events that build trust and familiarity. The area's well-maintained streets, regular lighting upgrades, and responsive police presence create environments where crime finds little opportunity.

1893: Edison at the World's Columbian Exposition:

Although Edison did not personally attend the Fair's opening, his inventions were prominently featured in the Electricity Building, one of the Exposition's most popular attractions.

Edison's Exhibits Included:
The Kinetograph and Kinetoscope, early motion‑picture devices that astonished visitors.

Phonograph demonstrations, showcasing recorded sound.

Electric lighting and power systems, presented alongside competing technologies from Westinghouse and Tesla.

The Fair marked a turning point in public understanding of electricity. Edison's presence — both physical (through his visit) and technological (through his exhibits) — helped cement Chicago's reputation as a center of innovation.

Early 20th Century: Illinois Institutions Honor Edison. As Edison's fame grew, Illinois communities commemorated him through public institutions:

Edison Elementary School District 69 – Morton Grove/Skokie

Edison Elementary Public School, 6220 N. Olcott Ave, Chicago, IL

And Various streets, parks, and civic facilities bearing his name.

These namings reflect Edison's cultural impact on Illinois long after his 1891 visit.

Conclusion
Thomas Edison's relationship with Illinois was not incidental. It was built on:

Technological adoption — Chicago embraced Edison's inventions early and enthusiastically.

Personal involvement — Edison's 1891 visit placed him at the center of planning for the world's most important technological exposition.

Edison Elementary Public School, 6220 N. Olcott Ave, Chicago, IL.

In November 1920, the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company established its first broadcasting station, KDKA, at its plant in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to promote the sale of its radio receivers. This initial station proved successful, so in 1921 the company developed plans to set up additional stations in major population centers.

The station was first licensed on November 15, 1921, as Chicago's first broadcasting station, with the randomly assigned call letters of KYW. Westinghouse & Commonwealth Edison initially operated it jointly, with Westinghouse later taking over as the sole operator. With financial support from Samuel Insull and the cooperation of Mary Garden, director general of the Chicago Opera Company, KYW's initial broadcasts consisted of the opera company's entire six-day-a-week winter season schedule.

The 1920s AM Station: Westinghouse launched KFKX in Hastings, Nebraska, in 1923 to test shortwave radio networking. It later moved to Chicago and merged into KYW before dropping the call sign in 1933. KYW was absorbed by the Chicago-based radio station WENR. This merger was part of a series of ownership changes and frequency assignments during that period.

In 1927, Chicago investor Samuel Insull purchased both stations through his company Great Lakes Broadcasting. On September 1, 1928, broadcasts as WBCN were discontinued, and the station, now licensed as WENR-WBCN, began full-time operations on the frequency. In November 1928, under the provisions of the Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, WENR moved to a "clear channel" frequency of 870 kHz, sharing time with WLS, becoming the first Chicago radio station operating with 10,000 watts, from a new transmitter site in Downers Grove, Illinois. Insull moved his stations into Chicago's Strauss Building, and then to his own Civic Opera Building.

In 1931, WENR was sold to the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) for approximately $1 million. The station became part of NBC's Blue Network. NBC moved WENR's studios to the Merchandise Mart, its Chicago headquarters. On May 15, 1933, after the FRC requested that stations using only one of their assigned call letters drop the others, the WBCN call sign was eliminated, and the station reverted to WENR.

Changes to AM frequencies in 1941 resulted from the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement. (NARBA). This moved WENR and WLS from 870 to 890 kHz. In August 1943, NBC was ordered to divest itself of the Blue Network and its stations; Edward J. Noble bought WENR and the Blue Network. In 1945, the Blue Network was renamed the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The station continued at the Mart as NBC's tenant until 1952, when it moved back to the Civic Opera House.  He worked as an evening newscaster on WENR from 1944 to 1951.

WENR and WLS shared their common frequency on a time-sharing arrangement until 1954, when ABC (then known as the American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres) bought a 50 percent interest in WLS and combined the stations under the WLS call sign.

Enduring legacy — Edison Park stands as a living monument to the inventor's influence on Illinois' identity. Edison's footprints across Illinois reveal a state eager to align itself with modernity, innovation, and the promise of electricity — a promise Edison himself helped define.

By Neil Gale, Ph.D.