Echo Beach

      Daylight Savings Time has begun. For those of us who don't know how to work our VCR's, now is the time to get out the instruction manual.

      I got to wondering were this all began and I found out some interesting things. Most of us know of Benjamin Franklin's whimsical proposal of Daylight Savings Time. It was in his essay "Turkey vs. Eagle, McCauley is my Beagle". There wasn't much point to it then or even in the 19th century. We didn't have time zones until the late 1800's.
      Time zones came about with the advent of the railroad. As railroads spanned the country they had difficulty maintaining a schedule. Each region of the country set their clocks according to the local astronomical conditions. High Noon was High Noon, when the sun was at its zenith. So it may be 12:00 in one town and ten minutes later it would be 12:00 in another. This was a big problem for scheduling trains.
       In 1883 the railroads established time zones to standardize their schedules. Sir Sanford Flemming of Canada took that a step further and was instrumental at the International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington in 1884 where they established the worldwide system of time zones.
      It wasn't until 1918 that Congress made the "rail zones" official. They gave the responsibility for any adjustments to the time zones to the Interstate Commerce Commission. That was the only federal agency that made decisions about transportation at the time.
      While Benjamin Franklin brought Daylight Savings Time up in 1784, it wasn't until 1907 when and Englishman, William Willett, suggested it again in a pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight". He wanted to move the clock ahead by 80 minutes in four 20 minute moves. In 1908 the British House of Commons rejected the idea of advancing the clock one hour in the spring and back in the fall. Still it was debated for a few more years and in 1916 the clocks were advanced by the British Summer Time act. Right away they discovered that they could save energy, which proved helpful in WWI.
      In 1918 the US followed suit and instituted Daylight Savings Time, also to conserve energy for the war effort. It proved unpopular and was repealed after two years. Congress reinstated it again on February 2, 1942, to conserve for the war effort of WWII. This time, however, they left it in place year round until September 30, 1945. England went so far as to advance their clocks by two hours in the summer and only fell back one hour in the winter.
      From 1945 on the local governments were free to observe Daylight Savings Time at their own choosing. Thus returned some of the confusion that started the whole time zone thing back in the 1800's. Radio stations had to publish multiple schedules for different cities. Transportation companies had to calculate a different schedule every time a town or city changed from standard time to Daylight time or back.
      By 1966 some 100 million Americans were observing Daylight Savings Time through local laws and customs. Congress stepped in with it's newly created Department of Transportation and decided to unify the country under one system. With the passage of the Uniform Time Act, Daylight Savings Time started on the last Sunday in April and Ended on the last Sunday in October. Any area that wanted to be exempt could do so by passing local ordinances.
      In 1973, with the Arab Oil embargo Congress placed most of the nation under a year round DST in hopes to conserve additional energy. That lasted two years, and was repealed mostly due to opposition in the farming states.
      Based on figures collected in 1974 and 1975 the DOT found that observing Daylight Savings time in March and April saved the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil each day. Further Daylight Savings Time saved lives because of daylight evening commuting hours and that Daylight Savings Time cut down on crime.
      Finally, in 1986, President Regan signed into law that Daylight Savings Time would start on the first Sunday of April and end on the Last Sunday in October.

      I strongly doubt that this will be the end of the tampering with the clock. The farming communities have always hated it. They have to get up with the sun no matter when it rises. It is inconvenient for them when the rest of the world's markets change with Daylight Savings Time and they cannot adjust.
      On the other hand the cities have discovered the benefits of Daylight Savings Time with lower energy costs and safer commutes.
      Yet again studies have found that there is an increase in accidents on the Monday after the clocks have changed. Some speculate that it's due to a loss of an hours sleep. So why can't they sleep in on Sunday?

      In any case, go check your smoke alarms, get out your VCR manuals, and change those clocks. The Sun is doing the "Time Warp" again.

               "o/~ It's just a jump to the left.
                         And a step to the riiiight… o/~"