The room was so still I could have heard a clock tick.
"Marital Power Exemplified in Mrs. Packard's Trial, and Self-Defence from the Charge of Insanity"
Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard
If no recording apparatus is used, the observer must write down the signals as heard in the telephone, since corresponding to a short spark at the transmitting station, a single tick or short sound is heard at the telephone, and corresponding to a series of rapidly successive sparks, a more prolonged sound is heard in the telephone.
"Hertzian Wave Wireless Telegraphy"
John Ambrose Fleming
They ain't going to allow him any more tick-not even to the tune of a string of beads.
"The Luck of Gerard Ridgeley"
Bertram Mitford