History of Daylight savings
2 min read
What is daylight savings time
By: Joseph Kachur
Daylight savings time had become a common thing during the time of WWII. Some countries have adopted the concept of a double summertime. This was standardized in the U.S. by federal law in 1966, and widely adopted in Europe from the 1970s because of the 1970s energy crisis. Since then, the world has seen many enactments, adjustments, and repeals.
The concept behind the topic is that humans can make more use of daylight. Benjamin Franklin is often credited for the topic as the first to suggest the idea of daylight savings in the 18th century. Benjamin had mentioned the idea because he realized that most of his morning was wasted sleeping in bed. After the idea of time saving people started to use it on March 31st, 1918. When the standard time act was brought to Congress, it was approved on March 19th, 1918. After the approval in Congress the law was signed by President Woodrow Wilson.
The main reason that daylight savings time was approved was to save on the cost of fuel in WWI. Due to this change fuel use was reduced by an hour, which was a substantial change in costs during WWI. Also, when introduced the entire US was saving money on electricity on a small, but significant scale. The amount of electricity being used across the US was down by one percent a day. Also, this act had people exposed to an extra hour of sunlight a day giving people more Vitamin D.
When daylight savings time was first introduced the concept of it was not accepted by many. Though it grew to be accepted and loved over time due to people getting lighter and saving money. When interviewed Christopher Linch from ADT said, “I like daylight savings time, because it gives me more time in the day to do things.” Also, Erik Zakk from LEIT. mentioned, “I like daylight savings time because it gives me more time for daylight.” As Daylights savings time was being implemented in the US, many other countries had adopted the system. Then once daylight savings time truly went into effect on July 1, 1916, most of the world had adopted this concept of daylight savings.
