[lorend]

Daylight Savings Time

BY DANIELLE LORENZ, MACINSIDERS

It’s that time of the year again...I hope you remembered to set your clocks back an hour! Unfortunately I did not and I am rather awake at 7:00am on a Sunday morning. So what is Daylight Savings Time and why do we do it? Well, since I’m awake I might as well tell you, so read on!

Daylight Savings Time (DST) was proposed in 1905 by William Willet, an English businessman who liked to spend a lot of time outdoors. His solution to people wasting large portions of their summer days asleep was to advance the clocks in the summer by two hours, which he publicized in a report two years later. Until his death in 1915, Willet lobbied (although unsuccessfully) for the adoption of his proposal.

The practice was adopted by Germany and its allies in the First World War on April 30 1916. Britain and most European nations soon followed suit. Russia and a few remaining nations waited until 1917, with the United States implementing the system the following year. Since then however, the custom has faced many assessments on its worth.

Over the years, various benefits and criticisms of the system have been found. Waking up an hour later reduces the amount of artificial light needed during the latter half of the observance. However, this does not impact the amount of energy used over the course of the year. Many retailers profit from the extra sunlight, allowing more customers into their stores. In contrast, changing the clocks causes significant loss in the stock market. There are suggestions that DST reduces traffic fatalities, and violent crime. It also works as a reminder for people to change the batteries in their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors (which should be done twice a year), as well as review fire-safety procedures. In the medical community, there is a varied opinion on DST affecting depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder; some sides say it helps positively while others negatively.

In Canada DST is observed on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November, but occurs on different days in other parts of the world, even within the same country. In Canada, at 2:00 local time (2:00am for those of you not familiar with the 24 hours system) the clock springs forward an hour in March, and falls back an hour in November. In other parts of the world, the shift may be as long as two hours or as short as half an hour, and in the past was as brief as twenty-two minutes.

Regardless of your opinion of the practice, it seems as though the custom will remain for quite some time. All you can do is re-set your clocks and go back to bed. Unfortunately as previously stated I’m wide awake so it looks like I’ll be getting an early start on the homework today.

[lorend]

William Willet? It seems as though his parents had difficulty coming up with a name...

[Rob Mac]

Benjamin Franklin came up with the idea for DST

[DannyV]

Originally Posted by winonakid

Benjamin Franklin came up with the idea for DST

From Wikipedia:

Benjamin Franklin, author of the proverb, "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise", anonymously published a letter suggesting that Parisians economize on candles by rising earlier to use morning sunlight.^[13] This 1784 satire proposed taxing shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells and firing cannons at sunrise.^[14] Franklin did not propose DST; like ancient Rome, 18th-century Europe did not keep accurate schedules. However, this soon changed as rail and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklin's day.^[15]

[aj-maxx]

Oh yay, I didnt know this and was wondering why my cellphone and laptop mysteriously went an hour behind time. This also means I slept an hour early and not the 7:20 I thought I did.

[Rob Mac]

Originally Posted by DannyV

From Wikipedia:

Oh yes since wikipedia is so reliable. from: http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html
Idea of Daylight Saving Time
The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project." Read more about Franklin's essay.

but from the same website Lorend is correct in saying that William Willett was the first, the first to seriously advocate it not propose

[DannyV]

Originally Posted by winonakid

Oh yes since wikipedia is so reliable. from: http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html
Idea of Daylight Saving Time
The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project." Read more about Franklin's essay.

but from the same website Lorend is correct in saying that William Willett was the first, the first to seriously advocate it not propose

I fail to see the difference between the content of the article and what I posted.

[Rob Mac]

yes but where in the article does it say that Franklin concived the idea/ Willet was the first to seriously advocate it.

[DannyV]

Originally Posted by winonakid

yes but where in the article does it say that Franklin concived the idea/ Willet was the first to seriously advocate it.

Well, now I can definitely sleep better tonight.

[Chad]

ya, so I totally forgot and woke up an hour earlier, looked at my blackberry (which had updated time) and was wondering why it was wrong...

then realized all my computers had the correct time and the blackberry was right and I hadn't changed my clocks.

That 1 extra hour of sleep in was good though

[davey]

Originally Posted by aj-maxx

Oh yay, I didnt know this and was wondering why my cellphone and laptop mysteriously went an hour behind time. This also means I slept an hour early and not the 7:20 I thought I did.

oh my that happened to me.. cellphones and computers are sooooo smart.