When I
woke up early this morning I realized that the time had changed. You may remember that you “fall back in fall
and spring forward in the spring”. So
did you fall back today?
Why do we
change our clocks twice a year? Let’s
blame it on Ben!
The idea of daylight saving was first
conceived by Benjamin Franklin (portrait at right) during his sojourn as an
American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical
Project." Read
more about Franklin's essay. Some of Franklin's friends, inventors of a new kind of oil lamp, were so taken by the scheme that they continued corresponding with Franklin even after he returned to America.
The idea was first advocated seriously by London builder William Willett (1857-1915) in the pamphlet, "Waste of Daylight" (1907), that proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and retarding them by the same amount on four Sundays in September. As he was taking an early morning a ride through Petts Wood, near Croydon, Willett was struck by the fact that the blinds of nearby houses were closed, even though the sun was fully risen. When questioned as to why he didn't simply get up an hour earlier, Willett replied with typical British humor, "What?" In his pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight" he wrote:
"Everyone appreciates the long, light evenings. Everyone laments their shortage as Autumn approaches; and everyone has given utterance to regret that the clear, bright light of an early morning during Spring and Summer months is so seldom seen or used."
http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html
Changing clocks and watches made me wonder if anything else should be changed in your lives. However, I do not want to fall back. Springing forward has much more appeal to me.
Are you
springing forward in your job, falling back or just marking time? Please share experiences with readers of this
blog by posting a comments or emailing me at glynjordan@gmail.com your feeling
about the time change.
Thanks! Glyn
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