After the unanimous vote in the US Senate, daylight saving time may end in the US in 2023. As it is known, in our country, daylight saving time has been abolished since 2018.
But have you ever thought about how daylight saving time came about? Actually, there are several different narratives about the emergence of this practice.
How did daylight saving time come about?
A popular story says that Benjamin Franklin originally thought of this practice as a joke. While living in France, Franklin wrote a satirical article published in the Journal de Paris. In this article, it was said that the future president, Paris, should be forced to wake up at sunrise to make the most of daylight and natural light, and that a great deal of money could be saved from candles.
His article began, “First. A tax [gold coin] per window should be levied on every window equipped with shutters to block out sunlight,” and continued: “Second. Guards should be placed in the shops of wax and tallow candle holders, and no family should be given more than a kilo a week. Let not too many candles be allowed. Third. Let guards be placed to stop all the wagons passing through the streets after sunset, except the doctors, surgeons, and midwives. Fourth. Every morning, as soon as the sun rises, all the bells should ring in every church; and if that is not enough, they should effectively Let the cannon be fired in every street to wake him up.”
This article is true, but the idea that Benjamin Franklin jokingly proposed the idea of daylight saving time in 1784 is unfortunately not true. The concept of the clock was not very clear in Europe at that time, although the principle of adjusting people’s schedules to enjoy more daylight (on taxes and the clash of the guard) was actually written down. So the idea was just the daylight saving idea, not talking about a clock-related system.
The idea originally came from an entomologist in 1895 who wanted more free time to collect insects. George Vernon Hudson was unhappy that at the end of his day’s work there was little daylight left for him to go and collect his beetles. His solution was to propose a two-hour daylight saving time for New Zealand, where he lives, rather than talking to his employer about working hours. The proposal argued that the money lost for energy and gas companies would be compensated by benefits for people who could spend more time in nature and experience clean air.
“The effect of this change will be to advance all day-to-day operations by two hours in the summer compared to the current system,” he wrote. A long period of daylight leisure will be provided for cricket, gardening, cycling or any other desirable outdoor activity.”
The idea was ridiculed without support.
A few years later, the idea was independently and in greater detail put forward by William Willett, a golfer who did not like to have his evening tour interrupted by the night. Willett was a passionate advocate of daylight saving time, spending many mornings on the road to work in broad daylight while much of London was asleep.
“The standard time remains so constant that for almost half of the year, while we sleep, the sun continues to shine for several hours a day,” wrote a brochure at his own suggestion and distributed it at his own expense. “And when we get home after the day’s work is done, it’s fast approaching the horizon, which has already crossed the western border.”
Willett openly argued that the change would save public money on gas, oil and electricity, as well as the benefits of more daylight on the population and their health. Willett sought support for the idea for the rest of his life, and he also found support in the Liberal Party. However, the implementation of the system remained until after his death.
Still, many consider Willet the most important actor in the implementation of daylight saving time.
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