I wish that I'd looked into this more while a grad student at UW. John Muir, the environmentalist who is often called the "Father of the National Parks," used this clock-desk to study while an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin. A slotted box under the toothed wheel contained books. After the time he'd set for studying a book, it would be returned to a slot and another get pushed up. The front legs are shaped like compasses for drawing circles and the back legs like stacked books. This device apparently connected to his "wide-awake bed," which would tilt him up and light a lamp as a sort of alarm clock. But other sources seem to describe the "wide-awake bed" and clock-desk as separate. Visitors to Muir's dorm room say he let them try out the bed.
Muir describes the clock-desk in "The Story of My Boyhood and Youth" (1913):
"I invented a desk in which the books I had to study were arranged in order at the beginning of each term. I also made a bed which set me on my feet every morning at the hour determined on, and in dark winter mornings just as the bed set me on the floor it lighted a lamp. Then, after the minutes allowed for dressing had elapsed, a click was heard and the first book to be studied was pushed up from a rack below the top of the desk, thrown open, and allowed to remain there the number of minutes required. Then the machinery closed the book and allowed it to drop back into its stall, then moved the rack forward and threw up the next in order, and so on, all the day being divided according to the times of recitation, and time required and allotted to each study."
More info: Blessing, Matt. "'The inventions, though of little importance, opened all doors for me': John Muir's Years as an Inventor". Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 99, no. 4 (Summer 2016): 16-27. http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wmh/id/52346
After Muir's death the family donated the unassembled clock-desk to the state. Library staff used a simple drawing of it to put it back together, but some parts seemed to be missing. I wonder if anyone has tried to create a working replica.
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| North Hall--where John Muir lived while at the University of Wisconsin in the 1860s. It now houses the political science department. |
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| Wisconsin Historical Society: Main entrance--The clock-desk is in the lobby after turning right. |
