Daylight Savings

[alexxkay]

...happens this weekend. In the US, anyway. Australian daylight savings happened last week, moving us from 8 hours out of synch to 9. Next week, it'll be up to 10. Scheduling conference calls has become a lose-lose situation. Ah, the joys of international development.

Why do we have daylight savings time, anyways? I've never heard an explanation that struck me as remotely rational...

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I think it was supposed to be an energy-saving mechanism. You'd turn the lights on in the house later in the day if it was still bright outside. Oddly, I couldn't find anything on the Straight Dope about it.

[(Anonymous)]

There's a lot of history about it at
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/

The idea was first conceived by Ben Franklin, and its practical use pretty much stems from around World War I, in Britain before the U.S.

-- Russ Kay (russkay@charter.net)

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

My favourite bad argument for daylight savings time came during the congressional debate to expand daylight savings time in the 80s. One congress critter argued on the floor of the house that it was important to expand daylight saving earlier into the spring to give farmers an extra hour of daylight to plant. It kind of explains some of our laws to know that that's what passes for reason in the people that make them.

agreed

[patrissimo.livejournal.com]

I detest DST. The mapping of sun position to numerical time is arbitrary already. Therefore shouldn't it at least have the virtue of consistency?

What is really funny is reading Benjamin Franklin's original essay proposing it. It is quite clear that he is proposing the idea satirically, not seriously. So blaming him for it is somewhat like blaming Jonathan Swift if someone starts eating Irish babies.