alarm device

An alarm device is a mechanism that gives an audible, visual or other kind of alarm signal to alert someone to a problem or condition that requires urgent attention. Etymology The word alarm comes from the Old French a l'arme meaning "to the arms", or "to the weapons", telling armed men to pick up their weapons and get ready for action because an enemy may have suddenly appeared. The word alarum is an archaic form of alarm. It was sometimes used as a call to arms in the stage directions of Elizabethan dramas. The term comes from the Italian all'armi and appears 89 times in Shakespeare's first folio. Often explained as the off-stage sounds of conflict or disturbance, recent research suggests a bell or drum may have been used to rouse soldiers from sleep. History and development Early alarm devices were often bells, drums, other musical instruments, or any items which made unusual loud noises that attracted the attention of the surrounding population.