Happy Daylight Savings Day!

Sunday, March 14, 2010:

It's that time of year again. We have officially sprung forward and now get to enjoy an extra hour of daylight at the end of our days. For most, this is a serious cause for celebration. Having daylight until at least 7 pm makes life after work much more feasible and, for us farmers who would rather work later than wake up earlier, gives us more time for work during the day.

There are lots of stories floating around about why daylight savings was originally adopted. Some say it had something to do with saving energy during World War 1. Others say it was for the farmers, although I'm not sure why. All these confusing explanations prompted me to do a bit of research about where daylights savings really comes from and why it was implemented in the first place.

Apparently, the practice of adjusting formal timekeeping to match the sun has been done in some capacity since ancient times. Roman water clocks had different scales for keeping time depending on the month and other cultures divided their time differently depending on the season. Modern daylight savings wasn't introduced until World War I, when Germany, its allies, and its occupied zones were the first to adopt the practice as a way of conserving coal.

In America, the movement towards standardized daylight savings began in 1883. Prior to that time, towns, counties, states, etc. set their own time, which led to an often confusing and jumbled system of time across the nation. The rise of the intercontinental railroad made it necessary for there to be some consistent agreement time that held true across the country (the train will arrive at 3:00 pm...wait...whose 3:00 pm?). So, in 1883, the United States railroad industry established time zones as we now know them with set time within each zone. Congress signed the railroad time zones into law in 1918 and made the Interstate Commerce Commission responsible for overseeing the time zones and any future adjustments that might be needed. The 1918 time zone law also called for the observance of daylight savings time nationwide, which was timely considering much of Europe adopted daylight savings in 1916. The daylight savings portion of the 1918 law was repealed in 1919, leaving specific daylight savings practices up to individual states. Finally, after years of states operating according to their own time, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, which standardized the start and end dates of daylight savings, but allowed individual states to refrain from the practice if they so chose. As of now, all states except for Arizona and Hawaii spring forward in spring and fall back in fall.

So there's the real deal about daylight savings. Although formal daylight savings was born out of the need for consistent time by which to run the railroad and a need to conserve coal during war time, daylight savings has really been done in some capacity or other forever. Practically speaking, daylight savings makes a whole lot of sense. More daylight during the hours when most of us are awake gives more time for outdoor activity, conserves energy, and has even been shown to decrease traffic accidents and crime. From what I read, the only group who doesn't benefit from daylight savings, interestingly enough, is farmers because they lose daylight in the morning when they typically start their work days. I know I'm not qualified to speak on behalf of the greater farming community, but I don't really mind swapping an hour of light from the morning to the evening. If we are so busy that we have to start work early, it's going to be dark no matter what. Working in the dark just goes with the territory.