How To Hack Your Alarm Clock [Gallery]

From the Popular Science archives: How to make your alarm clock water your lawn, cook you breakfast, turn on a light and more

By Julie Beck Posted 10.26.2012 at 2:30 pm 1 Comment

An Alarm Clock Lazy Susan for Lazy People, November 1939 If, when you wake up in the morning, your arms are simply too weak to lift your alarm clock from your bedside table and shut it off, wait until you regain your strength and then build this mini-turntable and mount your alarm clock on it. Now you can just lazily swivel it back and forth from the comfort of your bed and never have to exert your atrophying arm muscles again. The turntable is made of two faceplate turnings held together by a wood screw. Be sure to attach a piece of antiskid rug to the bottom so the clock doesn't slide off your nightstand, forcing you to get out of bed. Read the full story in Turntable Base Improves Bedside Alarm Clock

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Like anyone who's ever seen "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," I fervently wish I had a Rube Goldberg machine that made me breakfast for an alarm clock. While vintage PopSci doesn't have the exact blueprint for that machine, we did cover an alarm-clock attachment that can remotely turn on any electrical appliance, including a stove--meaning you could wake up to the smell of bacon sizzling. Nom.

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If breakfast's not your thing, there are plenty of other tasks you can hack your alarm clock to perform, from watering your lawn to playing music when you wake up. Peruse the archive gallery above for some good ways to put your old alarm clock to use, now that we all use our phones anyway.

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