Ancient Greek 'alarm clock' stuns researchers with 2,000-year-old technology

The Ancient Greeks invented many modern-day gadgets, including the alarm clock - something millions worldwide rely on to this day.

Ancient Greece is the source of some of the world's most prized treasures.

The civilisation was around for thousands of years, and its people were some of the most advanced of their time.

Many of the structures they built remain as strong as when they were erected, perhaps the most famous being Athens' Parthenon.

They also created a number of smaller, unlikely devices, including what is believed to be the world's first man-made alarm clock.

While ancient Greek engineer Ctesibius is said to have constructed something that resembled an alarm clock in Ancient Egypt, it is Plato who is cited with taking the basic design and thrusting it into modernity.

The story goes that he was unhappy with one of his students at the academy who kept oversleeping and missing class.

He took Ctesibius's creation, which made use of gas or pressurised air to use water to drop peddles to signal a certain time, and added a tube to the filling vessel.

In doing so Plato fashioned a siphon inside the clock, and so when the water got high enough to fill the tube and start to spill over, all of the water was siphoned off into another vessel.

This vessel was largely closed off, but had thin openings, making it whistle like a tea kettle when it filled up quickly. The invention worked, and people soon began using it as an 'alarm clock' to wake them up on time.