The year that the Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, invented what’s widely considered the first electric doorbell, which used a tightly coiled electromagnet to create a ringing noise by forcing a magnet to swing at a bell using the electric current. A mechanical buzzer works in a similar fashion, except there’s no bell to hit and the buzz is caused by the movement of the magnet itself. This ScienceOnline video does a good job explaining how buzzers, which later found use in alarm clocks, did their things in the pre-digital era… More at Medium.

The topic sounds rather dull, but it’s quite an interesting article. Honest.

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