Who Started Daylight Saving Time?

[snusgetter]

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Why Do We Have Daylight Saving Time?
Spring Forward, Fall Back & Clock Changes

Daylight saving time, a source of confusion and mystery for many, will strike again this weekend. The idea of resetting clocks forward an hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in his essay "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light," which was published in the Journal de Paris in April 1784, as a way to save electricity.

Franklin's suggestion was largely overlooked until it was brought up again in 1907 by Englishman William Willett, who penned a pamphlet called "The Waste of Daylight." Although the British House of Commons rejected Willett's proposal to advance the clock one hour in the spring and back again in autumn in 1908, British Summer Time was introduced by the Parliament in 1916.

Many other countries change their clocks when adjusting to summer time, but the United States only began doing so towards the end of World War I in an attempt to conserve energy. The House of Representatives voted 252 to 40 to pass a law "to save daylight," with the official first daylight saving time taking place on March 15, 1918. This was initially met with much resistance, according Michael Downing, author of the book "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time."

"When the Congress poked its finger into the face of every clock in the country, millions of Americans winced," Downing wrote. "United by a determination to beat back the big hand of government," daylight saving time opponents "raised holy hell, vowing to return the nation to real time, normal time, farm time, sun time—the time they liked to think of as "God's time.'"

Despite the public outcry, government officials enforced the time change until 1919, and allowed state and local governments to decide whether to continue the practice. It was reinstituted during World War II but, again, after the war the decision fell to the states.

In fact, even when Congress officially made the time change a law under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, it only stated that if the public decided to observe daylight saving time, it must do so uniformly. Hawaii and Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Reservation), still choose not to partake in the convention, as do some U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Originally, clocks were sprung forward on the last Sunday in April and turned back on the last Sunday in October, but the Energy Policy Act of 2005 shifted the start of daylight saving time to the second Sunday in March and the end to the first Sunday in November.

Life's Little Mysteries

SO, DON"T FORGET TO SET YOUR CLOCKS BACK ONE HOUR TONIGHT!!

[Frosted]

British Summer Time

2007 marked 100 years since British Summer Time was first proposed by William Willett. Changing the clocks for summer time is now an annual ritual in Britain and countries around the world. But why change the clocks, which way should they go, and whose idea was it in the first place?

William Willett saves the daylight, 1907–15

The idea of British Summer Time (BST), also known as Daylight Saving Time, was first proposed in Britain by a keen horse-rider, William Willett, who was incensed at the 'waste' of useful daylight first thing in the morning, during summer. Though the sun had been up for hours during his rides through the local woods in Chislehurst and Petts Wood, people were still asleep in bed.

Willett was not the first to propose such a scheme; in 1895 an entomologist in New Zealand, George Vernon Hudson, presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society outlining a daylight saving scheme which was eventually trialled successfully in New Zealand in 1927.

In 1907 Willett published a pamphlet called The Waste of Daylight, outlining plans to encourage people out of bed earlier in summer by changing the time on the nation’s clocks. He spent the rest of his life fighting to get acceptance of his time-shifting scheme. He died in 1915 with the Government still refusing to back BST. But the following year, Germany introduced the system. Britain followed in May 1916, and we have been 'changing the clocks' ever since.

The first day of Summer Time, 1916

Home Office poster announcing restoration of Greenwich Time, 1916 ©Private collection Britain first adopted William Willett's Daylight Saving Time scheme in 1916, a few weeks after Germany. For years, the British Government had refused to introduce Daylight Saving Time, but by then, Britain and Germany were fighting each other in the First World War (1914-18), and any system that could save fuel and money was worth trying. The Summer Time Act of 1916 was quickly passed by Parliament and the first day of British Summer Time, 21 May 1916, was widely reported in the press.

Clocks and watches were very different from those we use today. Many clocks could not have their hands turned backwards without breaking the mechanism. Instead, owners had to put the clock forward by 11 hours when Summer Time came to an end. The Home Office put out special posters telling people how to reset their clocks to GMT, and national newspapers also gave advice.

Changing times, 1918–39

William Willett, the tireless champion of the Summer Time scheme, died in 1915. By the 1920s, however, he was becoming a posthumous hero, as more and more people backed his daylight-saving plan. Public money was raised to buy and preserve Petts Wood. This was partly to act as a living memorial to Willett, but mostly as local residents wanted to prevent building development encroaching on their green spaces. A sundial – keeping British Summer Time, not Greenwich Mean Time – was erected there in a clearing.

Willett had become an icon of daylight. A portrait was painted; a bronze bust was sculpted; a pub was named in his memory, and in 1931 a wax figure was unveiled at Madame Tussaud’s in London. But not everybody had come round to Willett's way of thinking: over the subsequent years, dissenting voices were heard.

Permanent summer, 1968–71
In 1968, the clocks went forward as usual in March, but in the autumn, they did not return to Greenwich Mean Time. Britain had entered a three-year experiment, confusingly called British Standard Time, and stayed one hour ahead of Greenwich until 1971.

This was not the first experiment to shift the clocks in winter. In the Second World War (1939-45), Britain had adopted Double British Summer Time, with the clocks one hour ahead of Greenwich in winter and two hours ahead in summer.

When the British Standard Time experiment ended, the Home Office carried out an exhaustive review to find out whether it had been successful. The answer was both yes and no. There were ‘pros and cons’ to having the clocks forward and, on balance, the Government decided to return to the original British Summer Time.

Within a few years of its introduction, most countries reasonably north or south of the equator had adopted Daylight Saving Time. But it has been controversial since the day it was first proposed.

After a century of daylight saving, we still cannot agree on whether it is a good thing or not. When proposals to extend the system are occasionally made in Parliament, protest soon comes from those affected by its disadvantages. Daylight Saving Time tries to treat a complex network of symptoms with one solution. But not everybody sees it as a cure. So the debate continues.



Personally - I'd rather have the daylight in the evening in winter.

[lxskllr]

I'm a huge fan of Ben Franklin, but I'd like to punch him the the face for dicking with the clocks. It always throws me off. How about this for a novel idea. If you want more light, ****ing wake up earlier. That's what happens anyway, but it doesn't require the great lie :^S

[WickedKitchen]

I think they should move the clocks forward three or four hours. I think there's more value to having the light later than in the day then earlier...especially when you're driving around trying to find house numbers and street signs. Ugh. Ideally, I would like the sun to come up at 9 or 10AM and set about 12 hours later. Ireland is great for late sunsets. In the summer the sun sets at 10:00PM or so. I love it.

[Frosted]

Yeah - there's one night in Northern Ireland when it doesn't properly get dark. It stays lighter in the north of Ireland for longer in the evening. In London it gets darker earlier.

These days I go to work in the dark and go home in the dark - it's really depressing.

For me - different parts of the UK should have different time zones as there really is a big difference from north to south.

[myuserid]

I'm a huge fan of Ben Franklin, but I'd like to punch him the the face for dicking with the clocks. It always throws me off. How about this for a novel idea. If you want more light, ****ing wake up earlier. That's what happens anyway, but it doesn't require the great lie :^S

Agreed.

[Curtisp]

It's high time they abolished this crap. Going to work in the dark, coming home in the dark...sucks.

[Langdell]

I'm a huge fan of Ben Franklin, but I'd like to punch him the the face for dicking with the clocks. It always throws me off. How about this for a novel idea. If you want more light, ****ing wake up earlier. That's what happens anyway, but it doesn't require the great lie :^S

I only feel like punching him in the spring, tomorrow morning when I get that extra hour I'll feel like hugging him. I also wish I had several pictures of him in my wallet.

I do have one quibble with the article snusgetter posted--I'm not sure that Franklin suggested DST "to save electricity." As far as I know, B.F. didn't use electricity for lighting his home, only for zapping his kites.

P.S. Am I the only one who finds it odd that non-Daylight Savings Time is still called "Standard Time" even though DST is now in place for most of the year?

[snusgetter]

Standard or daylight-saving? Time to make up our minds

"One argument that we hear for the return to standard time is that without it, children would be walking to school in the dark for most of the year. Children still walk to school? Why are all those SUVs lined up twice a day in my town? Can't they just turn on their headlights?

The idea of daylight-saving time is attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

According to Wikipedia, it came as part of a satirical essay in the spirit of his proverb, "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

Franklin was living in Paris when he suggested that "Parisians economize on candles by arising earlier to use morning sunlight," and wake the public by ringing church bells and firing cannons.

Can't you imagine him slapping his knee up there in heaven, laughing uproariously at us moderns halting our trains, changing a dozen household clocks, and getting up early to feed our cats, all because of his little joke?"

[chainsnuser]

... which was published in the Journal de Paris in April 1784, as a way to save electricity ...

I think 'electricity' must be replaced with 'paraffine' or 'wax' in this context. The first real use of electricity for lighting happened more than 100 years later. Even my grandparents still used paraffine lamps before the general electrification took place in the 1920's (it might have happened earlier in other countries, but not that much earlier).

Besides of that, I also think that summer time is totally needless and does on the whole not save but waste energy and sunlight. Summer time (Sommerzeit) was introduced in Germany in 1978 (if I recall that correctly) through an EU-directive (just like the even more moronic snus-ban, 25 years later), so I still remember the "good old days" before this nonsense.

BTW, it's already "winter time" again here since last week.

Cheers!

[Frosted]

I think 'electricity' must be replaced with 'paraffine' or 'wax' in this context. The first real use of electricity for lighting happened more than 100 years later. Even my grandparents still used paraffine lamps before the general electrification took place in the 1920's (it might have happened earlier in other countries, but not that much earlier).

Besides of that, I also think that summer time is totally needless and does on the whole not save but waste energy and sunlight. Summer time (Sommerzeit) was introduced in Germany in 1978 (if I recall that correctly) through an EU-directive (just like the even more moronic snus-ban, 25 years later), so I still remember the "good old days" before this nonsense.

BTW, it's already "winter time" again here since last week.

Cheers!

I take it the EU is pissing you lot off just as much as it's pissing us off.

(Hey!! look how quickly I got this thread off topic )

[ratcheer]

I'm a huge fan of Ben Franklin, but I'd like to punch him the the face for dicking with the clocks. It always throws me off. How about this for a novel idea. If you want more light, ****ing wake up earlier. That's what happens anyway, but it doesn't require the great lie :^S

+1. I agree 100%.

Tim

[LincolnSnuff]

It doesn't bother me in the least. There are much larger problems this country should be focusing on.

[lxskllr]

It doesn't bother me in the least. There are much larger problems this country should be focusing on.

Yea, but DST is easy to fix, and the fix causes pain for nobody. Of all the bullshit legislation that gets passed, abolishing DST would be one of the gems of this generation.

[snusgetter]

It doesn't bother me in the least. There are much larger problems this country should be focusing on.

But this seems to be a problem that affects people's moods and dispositions.

Let's get on a year-round standard time; psychologically, this could be a
positive first step to a little more sanity.




Maybe I am a daydream believer!!