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Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: phil@rahul.net (Phil Gustafson)
Subject: Daylight Saving Time
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 17:24:46 GMT

The following is reposted for Doug Spindler. Apparently his propagation is as bad as he fears.

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Date: Thu, 16 Dec 93 11:08:57 -0500
From: Doug Spindler <spindler@alcoa.com>
Subject: Re: UL's all used up? was: Re: Myths

In article <CI3I7J.D5B@rahul.net> you wrote: > T. Nobody came up with any good stuff on the origins of Daylight Saving Time.
> I bet somebody could.

[I am taking the liberty of sending you this via Email as well as posting it, since I occasionally harbor doubts as to the propagational charcteristics of my posts.]

Well, I don't know if it qualifies as good stuff or not, but the following info has been posted by myself(twice) & Paul Foxworthy in this group in the past year.

Paul wrote:
: "The practice was first suggested in a whimsical essay by Benjamin
: Franklin in 1784 [DAS - in _Journal de Paris]. In 1907 an
: Englishman, William Willett, campaigned for setting the clock
: forward ahead by 80 minutes in four moves of 20 minutes each during
: the spring and summer months. In 1908 the House of Commons rejected a
: bill to advance the clock by one hour in the spring and return to GMT
: in the autumn.

Generally lampooned at the time, Willet died in 1915. DST(Summer Time) was adopted in England in May 1916, following the lead of Germany. [I do not know if the Germans picked up on Willet's idea or came up with the plan independently.] The motivation was to conserve coal. There was a fair bit of opposition from agricultural interests, but Lord Balfour came forward with a unique concern:

"[on the night the clocks are set back] Supposing some unfortunate lady was confined with twins and one child was born 10 minutes before 1 o'clock. ... the time of birth of the two children would be reversed. ... Such an alteration might conceivably affect the property and titles in that House."

The use of DST/Summer Time was continued in England after the war by various acts of Parliament, I believe its use has been continuous in one form or another since 1916.

In the US, DST was in place 1917-18, but was dropped nationally in 1919 over Wilson's veto. It was continued in a few states [Massachusetts & Rhode Island] and some cities [New York, Philly & Chicago among others]. DST was again adopted nationwide during WWII, but it was the Uniform Time Act of 1966 which legislated its current use in the US. (with the state/regional exceptions discussed in a previous thread.)

Most of the info I have included comes from the 1911-1927 EB editions.

I guess its just another one of those "Ben Franklin thought (or wrote) about it first, somebody championed it in the early 20th century and was ridiculed, but it was ultimately adopted after they died" things. (see Continental Drift & Wegener.)

I doubt that any of this merits inclusion in the FAQ, but it probably is sufficient to justify removing the entry quoted above.

Doug "bad historical analogies 'r' us" Spindler

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[ed. note: There's also a SciAm article out there from the late '70's. The cover of the issue showed a map of the US, cut apart on the time zone lines and reassembled with the zone centerlines superimposed. The article speculated on reasons for people living on the edges of this monstrosity to like or dislike daylight saving time.]

Phil (responses to <spindler@alcoa.com>)