From Odd Wisconsin:
On John Muir’s dorm room at the University of Wisconsin – Madison campus in the early 1860s:
“I can vividly recall the tall clock which he made,” wrote Grace Lindsley in 1935, “and which was connected with his bed in such a way that when the time came for which he had set it, the mechanism was released which tipped up the bed and threw the occupant on the floor, and at the same time struck a match and lighted a candle, or perhaps it was an alcohol lamp, at the foot of the bed. He entertained us by putting us on the bed, and setting the clock so that in a minute or two we were thrown off.”
Boy, the best I remember seeing in my days at UWEC was a couch made from Leinenkugels’ cases.