Falling Back in Lycoming County

Sunday, Nov. 6, 2 a.m.

“Don’t forget to turn your clocks back.”

Being a “baby boomer” who was born in the early sixties, I haven’t had much experience with Daylight Saving Time, except that it was always something we observed in autumn and spring. “It’s because of the farmers,” I was always told, and growing up in the bucolic hills of northcentral Pennsylvania, I easily accepted that explanation.

While the “why” of Daylight Saving Time may indeed benefit the farming community, its origin was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project." According to www.webexhibits.org, Franklin’s essay had such an impact on his friends, who were inventors of a new kind of oil lamp, 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), which proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and retarding them by the same amount on four Sundays in September, according to the website.

Though Willett spent a fortune lobbying as an advocate for time adjustment, his efforts were noticed by Robert Pearce who introduced a bill in 1909 in the House of Commons to make it compulsory to adjust the clocks. Met with opposition each time it was introduced, Britain passed an act on May 17, 1916, and Willett's idea of adding 80 minutes, in four separate movements was put in operation on the following Sunday, May 21, 1916. Chaos ensued, of course, creating confusion and opposition for all involved.

The observance of Daylight Saving Time occurred in the United States was first known as Standard time, instituted in the U.S. and Canada by the railroads on November 18, 1883. Prior to that, time of day was a local matter, and most cities and towns used some form of local solar time, maintained by a town clock.

The first man in the United States to sense the growing need for time standardization was an amateur astronomer, William Lambert, who as early as 1809 presented to Congress a recommendation for the establishment of time meridians. This was not adopted, nor was the initial suggestion of Charles Dowd of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1870. Dowd revised his proposal in 1872, and it was adopted virtually unchanged by U.S. and Canadian railways eleven years later, according to the website.

The plan was not formally adopted in the U.S. until March 19, 1918, establishing standard time zones and set summer DST to begin on March 31, 1918. Daylight Saving Time was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. After the War 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.

During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Saving Time, called "War Time," 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 whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time and could choose when it began and ended.

This can be confirmed by simply reading an archived copy of any local newspaper from that time period; municipalities and boroughs voted to either observe or ignore the time change.

This understandably caused confusion, especially for the broadcasting industry, as well as for railways, airlines, and bus companies. Because of the different local customs and laws, radio and TV stations and the transportation companies had to publish new schedules every time a state or town began or ended Daylight Saving Time.

On January 4, 1974, President Nixon signed into law the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act of 1973. Then, beginning on January 6, 1974, implementing the Daylight Saving Time Energy Act, clocks were set ahead. On October 5, 1974, Congress amended the Act, and Standard Time returned on October 27, 1974. Daylight Saving Time resumed on February 23, 1975 and ended on October 26, 1975.

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 a.m. on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November.

Other useful websites containing information of world time change include http://www.time.gov/widget/ and http://nist.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Eastern/d/-5/java.