DAYLIGHT SAVING--WHAT A JOKE!

Are we really “saving daylight” when we shift the clocks forward in the spring and back in the fall? Or are we really “saving energy?” Perhaps a more appropriate term would be “shifting daylight”.  

The concept of daylight saving (otherwise known as Summer Hours in other parts of the world) has gone in and out of favor.  There have always been proponents, touting the energy saved, and the opponents, saying that if people want to enjoy daylight, they should just get out of bed an hour earlier each day (I’m a card-carrying member of this camp!)  Not only is it disruptive to schedules—and anyone who has children or animals who don’t grasp the concept, this can be an incredibly frustrating semi-annual transition—there is some evidence that the number of accidents increase the week after a change as people adjust to the new light levels during their commute.

Hard to believe, the whole thing started out as a joke.

The idea of daylight saving was first presented in a satirical essay written by Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784. The social life extended into the wee hours of the morning, which then led to one rarely rising before noon. When a noise awoke him a few short hours after tumbling into bed, he noticed the sun was already up. Astounded at this, he wrote the following: 

I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it was but six o'clock; and still thinking it something extraordinary that the sun should rise so early, I looked into the almanack, where I found it to be the hour given for his rising on that day. I looked forward too, and found he was to rise still earlier every day till towards the end of June, and that at no time in the year he retarded his rising so long as till eight o'clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen any signs of sun-shine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanack, will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure them that he gives light as soon as he rises; I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. I saw it with my own eyes. And having repeated this observation the three following mornings, I found always precisely the same result.

He then put his mathematical brain to work and calculated that, based on the assumption that 100,000 Parisian families burned half a pound of candles per hour for an average of seven hours per day (the average time for the summer months between dusk and the supposed bedtime of Parisians), the waste of candle wax worked out to be 64,050,000 pounds each year. At a price of thirty sols per pounds of tallow and wax, the total sum comes to 96,075,000 livre tournois.  “An immense sum," the astonished Franklin concluded, "that the city of Paris might save every year.”

It would be another one-and-a-half centuries before the concept caught on. The concept was implemented in Europe during World War I in order to conserve precious energy. It wasn't standardized in the US until 1966. Now 48 states honor it, and more are considering legislation to make daylight saving permanent (avoiding the bi-annual adjusting of the clocks.)

For anyone who DOES practice daylight saving, the change happens this Sunday, March 14 at two a.m. Thankfully technology has advanced so that many of the electronic devices adjust themselves (that used to be a chore to make all those changes.) But there’s always that fright when I jump in my car on Monday, and think for just a second that I am an hour late for an appointment. And then, of course, I waste five minutes pulling out the instruction manual to see how to change the clock. There must be an easier way…

But to put a positive spin on it, losing an hour brings us that much closer to happy hour. Cheer's y'all.