Saturday 27 October 2018

Fall Back

The clocks go back to Greenwich Mean Time at  2am but why do we change them twice a year?

I found this book which explains everything.
 The book also explains how time was measured in earlier days and how the railways brought the standardization of time through the country and how time zones in the USA and other large countries became the norm.

(My version below of why we alter the clocks is simplified...................a lot!)

The first mention of anything relating to daylight saving is by Benjamin Franklin who was staying in Paris when in 1784 he was awoken by the sun streaming into his room and was amazed to find it was daylight at 6 a.m - he normally didn't get up until noon! He worked out that Parisians would sleep through 7 hours of daylight but then need expensive candles to light them in the evenings. He reckoned by using sunlight instead of candlelight for their working day for 6 months of the year they could save 64,050,000 pounds weight of wax and tallow.  (he was assuming all Parisians slept until noon!). He wrote and put forward a plan for a 4 point "Economical Project"

1. let a tax be laid....on every window that is provided with shutters to keep out the light of the sun
2. let no family be permitted to be supplied with more than one pound of candles per week
3. let guards be posted to stop all coaches, etc in the streets after sunset
4. every morning as soon as the sun rises , let all the bells in every church be set ringing; and if that is not sufficient. let cannon be fired in every street, to wake the sluggards effectively, and make them open their eyes to their true interest.
 
 which( unsurprisingly!) wasn't taken up.

In the summer of 1905 in England, William Willett  was up at 7am, taking his early morning horseback ride. He was a well known designer and builder of stately homes, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
As usual he was the only person up and about except for a few postmen, milkmen or labourers and as usual he found it difficult to understand why his countrymen were wasting the best part of a summer day. But then at the end of the day their hobbies and activities (he was a passionate golfer) would have to stop  when it got dark in the early evening.
One day he came up with the idea of shifting the clocks forward to save daylight so that early morning's wasted sunlight could be used in the evenings without altering the time that people woke up.
In July 1907 he distributed a pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight" and started a campaign for the adoption of summer daylight saving time in the UK. On February 4th 1908 the MP for Leek, Robert Pearce, introduced a bill in Parliament " Pearce's Daylight Saving Bill". By March he had the support of 200 MPs  but more opposed it so it never became law. Willet carried on pushing his idea until he died in 1915.
Meanwhile other countries had heard about the idea and Daylight saving bills were introduced in Germany, Canada, New Zealand and parts of Australia.
It was WWI that persuaded governments in many other  places to adopt the idea of making more use of daylight in summer by changing the clocks.

 During the second world war GB adopted Double summer time, two hours forward. My Dad had just finished school to help on his parents farm and I can remember him saying how difficult it was for farmers with milking cows - because the cows didn't know about clocks and daylight saving!

Since then, every now and again there are ideas to change things. Some people would like British Summer Time  all year round and Double Summertime through the summer (me!) others would like us to align ourselves with mainland Europe. It's discussed on radio and TV every October but at the moment there is always opposition to any changes - mainly from people in Scotland! (Apologies to all readers from North of the border - just quoting the book!!)

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Back Monday
Sue

25 comments:

  1. I like the clocks going back (extra hour in bed) but not forward - I never get enough sleep as it is.

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    1. I'm the opposite as I like getting up earlier!

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  2. Interesting. The changing of the clocks usually sparks another debate. I've never really thought about the difference it would make.
    What I do know for sure, is that Lily will not be allowing me to enjoy the extra hour in bed tomorrow morning. X

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    1. children and animals! I'll be made to get up by a cat!

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  3. Absolutely fascinating. I learn so much from your blog, thank you!
    I don't mind the clock changes as I'm always up early anyway. I used to worry when the children were little but they seemed to adjust remarkable well, perhaps because their day was punctuated by meals and they were at the new times immediately.
    I'm happy for it to stay just the way it is - maybe I'm just getting old!
    xx

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    1. I prefer the spring forward with summer on the way and I don't like an extra hour in bed

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  4. The clocks going back certainly makes the mornings lighter and years ago in Scotland this was the argument for keeping the current system. The idea was that chidren would walk to school in daylight for a much greater part of the year and be safer. Not sure many children do walk now so that argument is no longer valid! Since I retired I don’tbpay much attention to the clocks going back or forward as I am no longer ruled by tight timescales for anything.

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    1. The joys of being your own master! I don't mind the changes either

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  5. For people who farm, and there are plenty of them, it is better to have light over dark sooner rather than later in the morning and here there are many farmers. I have no problem with changing the clocks, in fact I like it.

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    1. I prefer the spring change but after 60+ years it doesn't bother me much

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  6. I didn't know anyone had written a book on the subject, Sue. I've written about this in several articles (about clocks) but I would like to see an end to this, I find it a complete waste of time (literally!) twice a year. I really hate the dark mornings and even darker evenings. We can't change the actual hours that we have of daylight but we can stop faffing with the clocks.
    Margaret P

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  7. PS I wonder, too, how this changing of the clocks actually affects our bodies. I find it hard to adjust and for other like me, I wonder what the statistics are for accidents, both at work, on the road and at home are, in the days/weeks following the change, and if there is any connection to this sudden change? I know I feel dopey for days afterwards, whether it's putting clocks forward or back.
    Margaret P

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    1. I prefer the spring forward rather than the fall back as it's easier to change clocks and I like to be up early but never feel like it in the winter

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  8. Very interesting. I had a vague memory of something in the 60s but which no-one else remembered. I have finally looked it up and there was a an experiment of keeping time "fixed" at GNT+1 from 1968-1971 but it was unpopular so it reverted back to changing. Glad to know the old brain hasn't let me down (yet!). Since I retired I don't worry about it and often don't change the clock in the car for several days, although of course many electronic clocks change automatically now.

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    1. I can remember that experiment too and it's written about in the book, but I ran out of ooomph for writing the post so didn't get to mention it!

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  9. p.s. just seen the typo - should read GMT+1 of course, although I quite like the sound of GNT (I like anything with gin involved).

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  10. We change times here in the US too and I hate it . Same amount of daylight regardless of the time. Either more use of electricity in the morning or at night.

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  11. I live in Scotland. I like to paint, so putting the clocks back means I get less time in the afternoon, when I paint, of natural light. But a daylight lamp sorts that, but I have seriously considered a miners helmet to get me back up to the house in the dark from my shedudio!

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  12. I change them half an hour at a time for a few days as it has an effect on me as I have to take my medication at the same time each day so I ease myself in gradually over the week so my symptoms from the change are gradual. It will be much easier to do this now I am not at work and time bound - I had to do a few flexi days to cover the 'change' time before. Other than that I am happy with either way.

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  13. I live in a province that never changes their clocks. Rumor has it that the farmers said the cows would not understand the time change and would still give their milk at the same time. Don't know how true that is, but for as long as I have lived here, Saskatchewan has not changed from Standard time.

    God bless.

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  14. We change our clocks 4 November. That just means I'll be driving to work on Fridays in the dark as opposed to seeing the sunrise as I go east 20 miles. There is a proposition on the CA state ballot about changing to not changing the clocks. If it passes it would have to be approved by the Federal Government meaning it won't happen.

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  15. Wasn't Benjamin one of the slug a beds himself? Funny, I was just talking about this with my hubby. Heard a really interesting piece on NPR a week or so ago. They talked about Ben, too. We turn the clock back on November 4th. I just have to think about the fact that we have already gone over 4 months since the longest day of the year and now have less than two months until they start lengthening again. Although I really don't like the short days, it seems to work out OK!

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  16. I'm sat here now at 4.50pm with two dogs whining at my feet as they think I've forgotten to feed them. To them its 5.50 ... and past tea time!!

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  17. we don't change time til this coming Sat...in the USA. Alot of people whine about the change of time. Leave it one way...forever...more likely daylight savings time. I'd rather fall back than spring forward. I can understand why animals don't adjust well to those changes. Enjoy your week and thanks for sharing information on time change! Interesting!

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