Daylight Savings Time: How it Started & Why Some States Don’t Participate
March 08, 2020
Yes it's cold, Yes I'm Tired, so don't forget to set your Clocks AHEAD 1 Hour
Show of hands: who’s excited to “fall back” this Sunday? Some think the illusion of an extra hour of sleep is completely worth it. While others bemoan the fact that it starts getting dark at 4:30 p.m.
Thise has been a contentious 227 year old history that didn’t begin in the U.S. and has many theories as to why it exists. How many of you said it exists for the farmers or for school kids?
According to Congressional Research, daylight savings was originally put in place to give people more daylight hours to work and do other activities. Conceived by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 at the time when he was Minister to France, Franklin felt it was only natural that when it was dark outside, more people would be sleeping and that extending daytime hours according to season would increase productivity.
William Willet proposed that daylight savings time be adopted in British Parliament because doing work and other activities in daylight hours would reduce demand on artificial light. Germany began observing daylight savings to conserve fuel during World War I.
The U.S. went through a lot of back-and-forth regarding daylight savings. The practice was adopted in 1918, abolished for unpopularity after WWI and reinstated during WWII — at this time it was called War Time and took place year round. Several states maintained daylight savings after this ended but it caused much angst to the transportation industry that pushed for uniformed timezones. After the Uniform Time Act of 1966 was passed, states could choose to participate in daylight savings, but the whole state had to adhere to the decision, but now states can split if they are also split according to time zone.