[78-L] Does anybody really know what time it is? ^

[William A Brent]

At 11:31 AM 10/26/2008, you wrote:
>Why *do* we have daylight saving time again??


William Willett conceived DST in 1905 during a pre-breakfast ride, 
when he observed with dismay how many Londoners slept through a large 
part of a summer day. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short 
his round at dusk. His solution was to advance the clock during the 
summer months, a proposal he published two years later. He lobbied 
unsuccessfully for the proposal until his death in 1915

In the U.S. Andrew Peters introduced a DST bill to the U.S. House in 
May 1909, but it soon died in committee.
Retailers generally favor DST. United Cigar Stores hailed a 1918 DST 
bill. During World War I DST was promoted as a way to alleviate 
hardships from wartime coal shortages and air raid blackouts. U.S. 
retailing and manufacturing interests led by Pittsburgh industrialist 
Robert Garland soon began lobbying for DST, but were opposed by 
railroads. The U.S.'s 1917 entry to the war overcame objections, and 
DST was established in 1918.

Farmers dislike DST, and many countries repealed it after the war. 
Britain retained DST nationwide but over the years adjusted 
transition dates.  The U.S. Congress repealed DST after 1919. 
President Woodrow Wilson, like Willett an avid golfer, vetoed the 
repeal twice but his second veto was overridden, but a few U.S. 
cities retained DST locally. First American half-cast president, 
Warren G. Harding, opposed DST as a "deception". Reasoning that 
people should instead get up and go to work earlier in the summer, he 
ordered District of Columbia federal employees to start work at 08:00 
rather than 09:00 during summer 1922. He died in office.


Studies done in the 1970s by the U.S. Department of Transportation 
show that we trim the entire country's electricity usage by about one 
percent EACH DAY with Daylight Saving Time.

Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and 
therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. 
This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and 
appliances late in the day. We may use a bit more electricity in the 
morning because it is darker when we rise, but that is usually offset 
by the energy savings in the evening