Knocker-up

A Knocker-up (sometimes known as a knocker-upper) was a profession in England and Ireland that started during and lasted well into the Industrial Revolution, before alarm clocks were affordable or reliable. A knocker-up would wake up very early (sometimes as early as 3:00 am) to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. Usually, the knocker-up was male and most often used a long and light stick (often bamboo), with pieces of wire attached at the end - to reach windows on higher floors and wake their clients at whetever time their clients requested. In return, the knocker-up would be paid a few pence a week for this job. The knocker-up would not leave a client's window until they were assured the client had been awoken. Knocker-ups usually worked in larger cities like London or Liverpool.

"Great Expectations", by Charles Dickens includes a brief descrition of a knocker-up."Hindle Wakes" a play written by Stanley Houghton and then a movie (of the same title) directed by Maurice Elvey, includes a knocker-up."Mary Smith", by Andrea U'Ren is a children's picture book based on the real Mary Smith a knocker-up.

Mrs. Molly Moore (daughter of Mrs. Mary Smith, also a knocker-up and the protagonist of a children's picture book aptly entitled "Mary Smith") claims to have been the last knocker-up to have been employed as such. Both Mary Smith and Molly Moore used a long rubber tube as a peashooter - to shoot dried peas at their client's windows.

Some knocker-ups worked freelance; their clients would either post the time they wished to be woken next to their doors, in their windows, or verbally, in advance. Some knocker-ups were employed by mills or larger factories to wake their large workforce on time.

Although the profession of knocker-ups became obsolete with the advent of readily available alarm clocks, the expression "knock up" is still used in Britain and Ireland to refer to waking someone at a set time in the morning, especially at a hotel. (Use of the phrase by British travellers in North America is a well-known gaffe, because "knock up" is also a Canadian slang term (occasionally used in the U.S. as well) meaning "to impregnate".)

External links

* http://www.franklyncards.com/one/radio.htm
* http://www.cottontown.org/page.cfm?language=eng&pageID=1291
* http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/WoodcockGeorge/tyrannyClock.htm
* http://allpoetry.com/poem/1435414

More sources to come (difficult to come by)