Daylight Saving Time: Origins Trace Back to Benjamin Franklin

In the vast scheme of things, the energy saving is not the big driver. It’s people wanting to take advantage of that light time in the evening.

Stanton Hadley, a now-retired senior researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who helped prepare a 2020 Congressional report on extending daylight saving time. Overnight on Sunday, the majority of the U.S. will turn their clocks one hour forward.

Why It Matters: This weekend marks the shift to daylight saving time (DST), meaning clocks spring forward an hour. The concept for a shifted schedule twice a year originated with Benjamin Franklin in 1784 when he joked in a letter that people would save on candles if they shifted their schedules in winter before returning to normal schedules in the spring. Now, a debate continues about whether to adopt daylight saving time year-round. In January, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act to “make Daylight Saving Time the year-round standard.” (Axios) Its path remains murky, however, as it may not gain enough steam to move forward this year.

Worth Noting:

• DST was not intended to make longer days for farmers but rather was first enacted to help conserve energy used for light/heat (coal) during WWI.
• The need for DST has always been a topic of debate. Today, about 70 countries observe DST – that’s less than 40% of countries around the world.
• DST lasts approximately eight months. Standard time lasts four months.

Origins:

• The federal government mandated DST in 1918 during WWI and again during WWII.
• 1966: Congress standardized DST start and end dates, requiring observing states to be in sync, but allowed states to opt out.
• 2005: Congress reset the start of DST to the second Sunday in March and set the end of DST for the first Sunday in November; these changes went into effect in 2007.

Read More: It’s time to spring forward. Daylight saving time begins this weekend. (The Washington Post)

Trump says it’s “hard to get excited” about changing daylight saving time (Axios)

SmartHER look at Daylight Saving Time