A Mr. Billy Bulova from Birmingham Alabama asks...
"Dear Mr. Knowitall, Who invented Daylight Savings Time?"
'Dear Billy, Ben Franklin did!'
In 1784, Ben wrote an essay suggesting that setting the clocks ahead in the Spring, and behind in the Fall would be wise because it would save expensive candles.
His idea wasn't given much thought until 1907. Thats when a British builder named William Willett was riding through the countryside, and noticed that in spite of the full daylight, all of the cottages curtains were drawn shut! It was a waste of daylight he thought, and wrote a paper advocating setting the clocks ahead in April, and back in October. This idea was Boo-Hooed as well, but the advent of WWI brought a dire need to conserve coal, so the British Summer Time act was passed in 1916. It set the time ahead one hour in the Spring, and back one hour in the Fall.
The USA followed suit in 1918, but the act was so unpopular that it was repealed in 1919. It was reinstated during WWII, and some states kept it, and some didn't!
The transportation industry led by the Greyhound Bus Co. lobbied very hard to remedy the situation, and finally in 1966 Congress passed the Uniform Time Act. It did NOT make DST mandatory, but it said that individual states needed to observe it on an individual basis. Daylight Saving Time is now observed in about 70 countries around the world!
PS...It's Daylight Saving Time! Singular..Not plural!
We are saving Daylight.
Good Question Billy.
Mr. Knowital grows weary...
Peace...!!!
15 comments:
And here I always thought it was for the farmers to have more daylight hours to grow their crops. LOL We don't change our clocks here Hawai'i and seem to get along just fine with everything...curtains or louvers...take your pick LOL Have a great week ahead :)
Stupid daylight savings time. I say bah to it. LOL
Wait, there's no change until March - why are you writing about it now?
We just have HST (Hawaiian standard time) while the mainland bounces one hour nearer and
further in time in Spring and Fall...
Aloha, Friend!
Comfort Spiral
Whoever invented it, I LOATHE having to reset my clocks twice a year. Yug!
i gotta say good old ben had some good ideas but this one is boneheaded.
i am giggling at the album cover. morris day (and "the time"), no?
intriguing....i dont know that i ever knew ll that...
I hate to tell you you are misinformed...It was Flavor Flav. Man that dude is the keeper of the clock.
i'm so glad we're spared daylight saving time... it makes no sense to this brain of mine...
I was hoping you were going to tell us which states observe this phenomenon. Doesn't part of Indiana
observe and the other half not?
Rest, Mr. Knowitall, rest . . .
I was told retailers liked daylight switch- people buy more in the light!
My husband actually boycotts the time change. He refuses to change his car, the garage clock, etc. I don't know which is more annoying- the time change or half the clocks around our house with the wrong time...argg..
Hi Gman! I am back.
I think Ben was joking, and Bill was an idiot -- in the British Isles we have sunlight until midnight in summer, the twit, of course the curtains get closed.
Sorry to be grumpy LOL but DST irritates me NO END and I wish it would go.
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