Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Why is there daylight saving time?


Let's say a person gets up at 7:00 in the morning and goes to bed at 11:00 in the night. He comes home from work about 6:30, and by the time he's finished with dinner it's after 8:00. He steps outside in the summer to relax- but its already getting dark! Not much time to enjoy the summer day.
Now suppose you set the clock ahead one hour. This person still does everything at the same hour- but this time, when he steps out at 8:00 o'clock there's still plenty of light to enjoy. An hour of day light has been "saved" for him.
Daylight saving time doesn't, of course , add any hour to a day. That's impossible. All it does is increase the number of useful hours of daylight during the seasons when the sun rises early.
Daylight saving is most popular in cities. It permits the closing of offices, shops, and factories at the end of the working day while the sun is still high. Farmers, who do their work by sun time, usually do not observe daylight saving time. They cannot work in the field before the morning dew has dried or after it appears in the evening.
Did you know who first thought of daylight saving time? It was Benjamin Franklin! When he was living in France in the 18th century, he suggested the idea to the people in Paris. But it was not adopted then.
Daylight saving laws were first passed during World War 1. At this time, fuel for generating electricity was scarce, and so it was necessary to save on artificial light. With the daylight saving, the bedtime of many people comes son after it gets dark, while without it, if they stay up until the same hour they may have to use artificial light.
The first country to adopt daylight saving time was Germany in 1915. Then England used it in 1916, and the United States adopted it in 1918.
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