The Brief History of Ratchets
Noisemakers for party-time and danger.
What is a Ratchet?
A ratchets is a simple, wooden instrument made of three parts: a handle, cog and weighted slat. The sound is manually produced by swinging the weighted slat around the cog. Most ratchets are rectangle or tear-drop shaped and can feature one or more cogs to produce a louder sound.
Searching for the Ratchet
The ratchet, however, is more interesting than its looks. Ratchets were primarily used as religious party-time favors, and later, as portable emergency signals. Several cultures adopted the instrument for its simplistic form, but changed its context and name. Name variation makes it difficult to track in history, but the story can be summarized in four periods.
Croatalus- The earliest example of ratchets were used during the silent days of Paschal Triduum (three days before Easter). Since the 9th century, parishioners rang croatali instead of church bells to condemn Judas’ role in the crucifixion of Jesus.
Grogger- Jewish communities used ratchets during Purim to condemn the actions of Haman. Like Judas, Haman is the biblical antagonist that persecuted the Jews in the Book of Esther.
Watchman’s Rattle- By the 18th century, ratchets had been re-appropriated for secular purposes. Foot policemen, known as watchmen, carried the small device to alert others of emergencies. One patent added a collapsible handle to make it easier to carry in one’s pocket.
Gas Alarm Rattle- Ratchets were later adopted during both World Wars to warn soldiers of possible gas attacks. Gas alarm rattles were small enough to carry and loud enough to be heard in the distance.
A Case for Cultural Diffusion
Ratchets aren’t the only example of one object migrating across different groups of people. Cultural diffusion is the mechanism that causes ideas to be adopted, re-imagined and re-purposed from culture to culture.
As for ratchets, the similarities between religious rituals and emergency signals could be a case of cultural diffusion . But what is the connection between these two eras?
Jewish immigration.
Large scale migration may have played a major role a century-old religious object finding new roots in Western civilization. Ratchets were largely confined to Eastern European communities. By the 18th and 19th century however, both the United States and Western Europe saw a major influx of Jewish immigrants. And with them, came century old traditions that had never been seen before.
Written by Acacia Berry, Archaeological Analytics
