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Oct 29, 2009 10:52 pm US/Central
Good Question: Why Do We Use Daylight-Saving Time?
(WCCO)
We do this tango twice a year: spring forward in March and fall back in November. But why do we observe daylight-saving time?
The history tracks to a concept expressed by Benjamin Franklin, although he didn't come up with the idea of turning back the clock. He wrote a letter to the French in 1784, satirically suggesting the French wake up with the sunrise in order to save on candle wax. He argued that the French would save 64 million pounds of candle wax by taking advantage of natural light.
The idea of literally turning back the clock to take advantage of sunlight during the waking hours came from New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson.
According to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, "His shift-work job made him aware of the value of the daylight hours, and on 16 October 1895 he presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society advocating seasonal time adjustment."
In the United States, the World War I effort to conserve coal was the reason states started turning back their clocks. The original idea was to save energy, but it was never a requirement to change the clocks.
Some states changed, some did not. There were even conflicts within the Twin Cities. In 1965, St. Paul decided to begin its daylight-saving time period early to conform to most of the nation. Minneapolis chose to follow Minnesota's state law, which had the "spring forward" happening later.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 still allowed states to opt in or out to daylight-saving time, but it did set a national date for the changes to take place.
Most researchers have found that due to lifestyle changes, the original goal of conserving energy no longer holds. Shifting the daylight just shifts the time that the electricity is used. Even so, in 2007, the federal government added about four extra weeks to the period of daylight-saving time.
We spring forward in late March and fall back in early November. The legislation was pushed by retailers, who felt that longer sunlight at night led to an increase in shopping.
Some have proposed just staying at daylight-saving time, and never changing the clocks. However, if we didn't fall back, in early January, sunrise would be at 8:51 a.m.
There have been safety reasons cited for changing the clocks, however, hard evidence of a decrease or increase in crashes is hard to come by.
The United States isn't the only country that changes the clocks (although Arizona and Hawaii do not observe daylight-saving time). All of Europe (except Iceland) changes. Most of Asia, including China and Japan, do not change.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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