I thought day light savings time was established for farmers to have longer days for plowing and chores. Turns out the beloved cows get thrown off their established patterns with DST. I was told as a child that an unhappy cow does not give milk... curious about the origins of day light savings time and not always one to take things literally I had to do some homework. Here's what I found in Wickipedia. Just in case you're interested.
"Saving daylight was first mentioned in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin in a humorous letter[1] urging Parisians to save money by getting up earlier to use morning sunlight, thereby burning fewer candles in the evening. Franklin did not mention Daylight Saving Time—he did not propose that clock time be changed. His letter was in the spirit of his earlier proverb "Early to bed and early to rise / Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."[2]
DST was first proposed in 1907 by William Willett,[3] but he was unable to get the British government to adopt it, despite considerable lobbying.
DST was first put into practice by a national government in Germany during World War I, between April 30, 1916 and October 1 1916. Shortly afterward, the United Kingdom followed suit, first adopting it between May 21 and October 1 1916. On June 17, 1917, Newfoundland became the first North American jurisdiction to adopt DST with the passing of the Daylight Saving Act of 1917. On March 19, 1918, the U.S. Congress formally established several time zones, which had been in use by railroads and most cities since 1883; at the same time it established DST from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. The law, however, proved so unpopular, mostly because it obliged people to rise and go to bed earlier than had become customary since the advent of electricity, that it was repealed after 1919, when Congress overrode President Woodrow Wilson's veto of the repeal.
It appears to be determined on a state-by-state basis whether a state will choose to observe Daylight Saving Time or not. Arizona and Hawaii do not observe Daylight Saving Time. Until recently, Indiana did not observe it due to intense lobbying from farmers, although the Indiana legislature recently voted to observe it. "
I consider it a gift that the sun is shining no matter if it still feels like winter. An extra month in all of day light savings time seems like a great gift to me as I am tired of gray and gloom, snow and ice. Welcome spring! There are crocus blooming in my garden. Let the fun begin....
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Hi, Mrs. Parker.
Thanks for your thoughts on daylight saving time.
You wrote, "I consider it a gift that the sun is shining no matter if it still feels like winter. An extra month in all of day light savings time seems like a great gift to me as I am tired of gray and gloom, snow and ice."
I imagine you know better, but it almosts sounds from your comments as if you think that the legislators actually gave us an extra hour of sunlight every day that we observe daylight saving time.
Even the name by which we call it encourages that sort of fantasy.
Of course all it really does is make the clocks read an hour later than normal, so it feels like we have an hour less daylight in the morning and an hour more in the evening.
Here in central Indiana, we still have only 11 hours 44 minutes of sun tomorrow, regardless of what the clocks read. If we still lived by the sundial, the sun would rise and set at 6:08 am and 5:52 pm. If were on central standard time, it would rise and set at 6:03 am and 5:47 pm -- pretty close to how people lived before time zones and daylight saving time.
If we were on central daylight saving time, like the corners of Indiana near Chicago and Evansville, the rise and set in Indianapolis would be 7:03 am and 6:47 pm, about one hour of daylight shifted from morning to evening -- as DST was intended to do.
By observing eastern daylight saving time, the rise and set tomorrow will be 8:03 am and 7:47 pm. This is 3.95 hours of morning sunlight and 7.78 hours of evening sunlight -- nearly two hours shifted from morning to evening.
No wonder some refer to eastern DST as "double daylight time". There was a clear consensus in the last non-binding statewide referendum on this issue in 1956 that most Hoosiers opposed the "double-fast time" of eastern DST.
It would be interesting to see how such a referendum would turn out today, if our state legislators had the courage to put it on the ballot.
Regards, Bill Starr
Columbus, Indiana
Sat, 10 Mar 2007, 2:28 pm EST
Bill, thanks for the visit and your comments. I may have been too abstract. I am gratefull to see sunshine! Winter is too long for me!
Well Zelda, despite what good ole Bill thinks it is def more sunlight for us that suffer SAD! So I say Bring on the Sun!
You're welcome, Zelda.
Zelda wrote, "I am gratefull to see sunshine! Winter is too long for me."
I second that. It's nice to have the longer days of summer returning!
I was just lamenting that in Indiana the deck is really stacked against people who like the morning sunshine. We're in the same time zone as New Jersey, although it takes the sun about 45 minutes to travel from New Jersey to Indianapolis. So during the whole year New Jersey gets about 45 more minutes of morning sun than we do at our longitude in Indiana.
Some years I seem to battle SAD as well. Some of the research I have read indicates that more morning sunlight is helpful.
For example, "The problem is not getting enough light early in the day," Baxter says... If you don't want to buy a light box, try to get outside in the morning sunlight - if there is any...
http://www.theolympian.com/105/story/51650.html
"Research has been, to date, inconclusive, but several studies suggest that morning light is perhaps the most important related to exposure... During winter, try to be outside and be exposed to morning light."
http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/0202.html
"Alfred Lewy, MD, a seasonal affective disorder researcher at the Oregon Health & Science University, says it's not only a matter of getting light, but also getting it at the right time. 'The most important time to get light is in the morning,' he says."
http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/seasonal-affective-disorder
The unfortunate thing about starting DST 3 or 4 weeks earlier is that it robs us of an hour of morning sunlight earlier than before.
Best regards, Bill
Sat, 10 Mar 2007, 5:49 pm EST
unhappy women do not give milk either.
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