Daylight Savings Time.  Where did the idea come from?

Here's a brief history of the idea.

Various folks throughout the years proposed the idea, but it did not catch on until World War One.  




"Germany was the first country to implement DST. Clocks there were first turned forward at 11:00 p.m. (23:00) on April 30, 1916.

The rationale was to minimize the use of artificial lighting in order to save fuel for the war effort during World War I. The idea was quickly followed by Britain and many other countries, including the United States. Many countries reverted back to standard time post-World War I. It wasn’t until the next World War that DST made its return in many countries in order to save vital energy resources for the war.

In the U.S., Daylight Saving Time – or “fast time”, as it was called then – was first introduced in 1918 when President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law to support the war effort during World War I. The initiative was sparked by Robert Garland, a Pittsburgh industrialist who had encountered the idea in the United Kingdom. A passionate campainer for the use of DST in the United States, he is often called the “father of Daylight Saving”.

Seasonal time change was repealed just seven months later. However, some cities – including Pittsburgh, Boston, and New York – continued to use it until President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted year-round DST in the United States in 1942.

Year-round DST, also called “War Time”, was in force during World War II, from February 9, 1942 to September 30, 1945. The change was implemented 40 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and during this time, the U.S. time zones were called “Eastern War Time”, “Central War Time”, and “Pacific War Time”. After the surrender of Japan in mid-August 1945, the time zones were relabeled “Peace Time”.

Britain applied “Double Summer Time” during World War II by setting the clocks two hours ahead of GMT during the summer and one hour ahead of GMT during the winter."

http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/history.html





"Other parts of the world observe Daylight Saving Time as well. While European nations have been taking advantage of the time change for decades, in 1996 the European Union (EU) standardized an EU-wide "summertime period." The EU version of Daylight Saving Time runs from the last Sunday in March through the last Sunday in October. During the summer, Russia's clocks are two hours ahead of standard time. During the winter, all 11 of the Russian time zones are an hour ahead of standard time. During the summer months, Russian clocks are advanced another hour ahead. With their high latitude, the two hours of Daylight Saving Time really helps to save daylight. In the southern hemisphere where summer comes in December, Daylight Saving Time is observed from October to March. Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) don't observe Daylight Saving Time since the daylight hours are similar during every season, so there's no advantage to moving clocks forward during the summer."

http://www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html






ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

The Waste of Daylight, by William Willet, 1907

Wiki entry on DST

Daylight Time article by US Naval Observatory

Thanks for the history lesson, OP. It's good to have a name to add to my mumbled curses while I stumble around those first few mornings after the time change while I am getting ready for work, trying to adjust to getting up an hour earlier again.



I can see where the time change maybe served a purpose back in the day when most nations, even ours, were far more agrarian (with actual family farms, where people had to take advantage of every minute of actual daylight to get things done) and far less technologically advanced than we are today.

Now, however, when even sleepy backwater towns have Walmarts that are open 24 hrs/7 days a week, and all but the most remote locales are hooked up to the power grid, it seems like we can do away with this fiction of "daylight savings."

We should just adopt Arizona's version of DST, ignore it.

This.

This is exactly why we shouldn't go to war. We get ph*cked up things like DayLight Savings Time and Spam.

We should just keep DST all year. I like dark mornings and light in the evening.

+1000.

Every time we switch to or from DSL, my sleep is messed up for at least three weeks.

I think its well past time to pick one time and stay on it.  My preference would be to stay on DSL all year.

+1 for this.....

+10,000

Daylight doesn't do me much good eating breakfast, drinking coffee and driving to work. Certainly is helpful after work to have some extra light time.

Very cool.

I agree. Much more useful for after work activities. Not so much morning.