History of Daylight Saving Time

Why do we change the clocks to Summer Time?

120 years after Benjamin Franklin wrote a a letter to the editors of the Journal of Paris in 1784.

William Willett - 20th Century

Daylight Saving Time, or Summer Time as it is known in Britain, was proposed by  William Willett (1857 - 1915), who was a London builder living in Petts Wood in Kent.

In 1907 Willett's circulated a pamphlet to many Members of Parliament, town councils, businesses and other organisations, he outlined that for nearly half the year the sun shines upon the land for several hours each day while we are asleep, and is rapidly nearing the horizon, having already passed its western limit, when we reach home from work before it is over.

His proposal was to improve health and happiness by advancing the clocks twenty minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and by reversing this idea by the same amount on four Sundays in September. He reckoned that it would not only improve health and Happiness but it would save the country £2.5 million pounds, that was also taking into account the loss of earnings to the producers of artificial light.

Though the scheme was ridiculed and met with considerable opposition a Daylight Saving Bill was introduced in 1909, though it met with no success before war broke out.

The idea of daylight saving time was first put into practice by the German government during the First World War.  In an effort to conserve fuel Germany and Austria began saving daylight at 11 p.m. on the 30th of April, 1916, by advancing the the clock one hour until October 1, 1916.

Britain (UK) began 3 weeks later, on 21 May 1916. This was immediately followed by other countries in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Turkey.

Sadly, William had died the previous year so never saw his idea put into effect.

In 1917, Australia, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, Canada initiated it

On March 19, 1918, the U.S. Congress established several time zones (which were already in use by railroads and most cities since 1883) and made daylight saving time official (which went into effect on March 31) for the remainder of World War I. It was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919.

Most countries abandoned Daylight Saving Time after the war had finished , most reintroduced it eventually, and some even began to keep it throughout the year.

Oil Crisis

In 1968 to 1971 Britain tried the experiment of keeping BST - to be called British Standard Time - throughout the year, largely for commercial reasons because Britain would then conform to the time kept by other European Countries. This was not good for the school children of Scotland as it meant they had to always go to School in the dark. The experiment was eventually abandoned in 1972, Britain has kept GMT in winter and BST in summer.