Surprising History - Daylight Savings Time, the seasonal time change that just occurred on November 5th, is often credited as originally an idea conceived by Ben Franklin. In 1784, as an elderly diplomat living in Paris, he wrote An Economical Project, a discourse on the thrift of natural versus artificial lighting. He included several comical regulations that Paris might adopt to use and simply suggested that Parisians could economize candle usage by getting people out of bed earlier in the morning. These jokes included such suggestions as a tax laid on every window built with shutters to keep out the light of the sun, and candles rationed to one pound per family per week, and use of church bells and cannons to inform the citizenry of the advent of light, essentially a city wide alarm clock. On the assumption that waking up earlier would conserve energy and usage of candles, Franklin proposed these joke regulations as a means to alleviate the issue. Over two centuries later, nations around the world use a variation of his concept to conserve energy and more fully enjoy the benefits of daylight. Church bells and cannon to wake the sleeping populace were replaced by simply altering the clocks in the spring and fall to maximize daylight hours.
The official history of its use in the United States dates back to the Standard Time Act of 1918 with the intention of saving electricity for seven months of the year during WWI. Repealed in 1919 it was then enacted again in 1942 during the War Time Act as a wartime measure to conserve energy resources. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 mandated Daylight Savings begin nationwide on the last Sunday in April and end on the last Sunday in October. After the 1973 energy crisis DST began earlier but returned to Uniform time Act mandate in 1976. After March 2007, DST was extended another four to five weeks and was added to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, seemingly as an Iraq war time energy conservation measure. Overall there is very little research into the actual positive effects of this policy aside from the populace enjoying an extra hour of sleep one day and longer days for a bit in the spring.
More Franklin Reading
by: Benjamin Franklin (Duh)
A timeless classic in the Autobiography genre details bits of Franklins life from 1771 to 1790. All around interesting guy as a statesman, author, inventor, printer and scientist, the book highlights Franklins diligent work ethic and methods of self-improvement and habit formation. It highlights his boyhood, determination to achieve high moral standards, his work as a printer, experiments with electricity, political career, experiences during the French and Indian War, and more. I enjoy it for the biographical information about one of America's greatest individuals but also for its self-help habit formation guidelines, the candidness and pretty funny anecdotes. See below:
"Then I asked for a three-penny loaf, and was told they had none such. So not considering or knowing the difference of money, and the greater cheapness nor the names of his bread, I made him give me three-penny worth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great puffy rolls. I was surprised at the quantity, but took it, and, having no room in my pockets walked off with a role under each arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing
by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife's father; when she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance."
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Topical Music
Time - Hootie & The Blowfish
Time After Time - Iron & Wine
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me - Elton John
Time - Pink Floyd
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