Time: a many splendid thing
After the sun dial, people have measured time with mechanical devices since the Middle Ages. The challenge was that each city set the time based on the position of the sun and therefore each would have a slightly different time. This time is called local mean time.
Britain was the first country to adopt a regional based time, pushed by the local railroads’ need for scheduling time consistency. In the 1930’s Great Britain established the Greenwich Observatory to be the official Greenwich Mean Time or GMT time keeper. They used astronomical observations to kept the time accurate. By 1840 most British railways had adopted “London time” as the standard. By the mid 1850’s most of London’s public clocks had adopted GMT with the Crown officially adopting the standard in 1880.
Following the Civil War at the behest of the railroads, the United States adopted four standard time zones (This applied only to the coninental United States as Alaska was still part of Russia and Hawaii was its own nation). At high noon on November 18, 1883 the U.S. Naval Observatory changed its telegraphic signals to correspond to this change. Prior to this change, travelers had to adjust their watches by one minute for every 12 miles and until they travelled hundreds of miles on a trip, this was not much of a problem. Over time most cities and towns adopted the new standard as well. One notable exception was Detroit who took until 1905 to adopt Central Standard Time (CST).
In November 1884, the International Meridian Conference met in Washington, D.C. and agreed to establish international time zones based on the same system that was being used in the U.S. and divided the globe into 24 time zones with GMT considered time zero and setting the international dateline on the 180 degree meridian in the Pacific Ocean.
Daylight Savings Time
Daylight Saving Time (DST) has been used in the U.S. and in many European countries since World War I. As a way to reduce use of electricity and therefore save fuel, Germany and Austria began saving daylight at 11:00 p.m. on April 30, 1916, by advancing the hands of the clock or “springing forward” one hour until October. Other European countries immediately began saving too: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, and Tasmania. Nova Scotia and Manitoba adopted it as well, with Britain following suit three weeks later, on May 21, 1916. In 1917, Australia and Newfoundland began saving daylight.
The plan was not formally adopted in the U.S. until 1918. 'An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time for the United States' was enacted on March 19, 1918. It both established standard time zones and set summer DST to begin on March 31, 1918. The law gave the Interstate Commerce Commission control over any time zone changes. When Congress created the Department of Transportation in 1966 this authority was transferred to the new department with the intent of making any time zone changes a “convenience of commerce.”
Daylight Saving Time was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. After the World War I ended, the law proved so unpopular (mostly because people rose earlier and went to bed earlier than people do today) that it was repealed in 1919 with a Congressional override of President Wilson's veto. Daylight Saving Time became a local option, and was continued in a few states, such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and in some cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
President Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Saving Time during World War II. Called “War Time.” It lasted from February 9, 1942 to September 30, 1945. From 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law regarding Daylight Saving Time, so states and localities were free to choose to observe Daylight Saving Time or not and when it began and ended. This understandably caused confusion, especially for the broadcasting industry, as well as for railways, airlines, and bus companies.
By 1966, some 100 million Americans were observing Daylight Saving Time based on their local laws and customs. Congress decided to step in and end the confusion, and to establish one pattern across the country. The Uniform Time Act of 1966, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, created Daylight Saving Time to begin on the last Sunday of April and to end on the last Sunday of October. Any State that wanted to be exempt from Daylight Saving Time could do so by passing a state law.
President Nixon signed into law the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act of 1973 causing clocks to be set ahead to DST on January 6, 1974, returning to Standard Time October 27, 1974. Daylight Saving Time resumed on February 23, 1975 and ended on October 26, 1975.
Under Congressional legislation enacted in 1986, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. began at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and ended at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. beginning in 2007, though Congress retained the right to revert to the 1986 law should the change prove unpopular or if energy savings are not significant. Going from 2007 forward, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S.
- begins at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday of March and
- ends at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of November
The primary reason the first Sunday in November was selected is because DST ended a few days before Halloween (October 31). The new law extend DST to the first Sunday in November to provide trick-or-treaters more light and therefore more safety from traffic accidents. Children’s pedestrian deaths are four times higher on Halloween than on any other night of the year. For decades, candy manufacturers lobbied for a Daylight Saving Time extension to Halloween, as many of the young trick-or-treaters gathering candy are not allowed out after dark. The new law provides the candy industry with a big treat for Halloween.
