A Brief History of Daylight Savings Time

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A Brief History of Daylight Savings Time

Benjamin Franklin is famous for his proverb: “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man health, wealthy and wise.”

He also, while in his role as an American envoy to France, anonymously published a letter suggesting that Paris residents could save on the cost of candles by waking up earlier to use the morning’s light. His “An Economical Project” satire also proposed taxing shutters, rationing candles and waking the public by ringing church bells and firing cannons at day break.

But Franklin didn’t actually propose Daylight Savings Time. New Zealand entomologist  George Vernon Hudson raised the issue in 1895, proposing a two-hour daylight-saving shift.

But Daylight Savings Time wasn’t used until April 1916 when Germany and its World War I allies adopted it as a way to conserve coal in wartime. Britain and many of its allies, as well as European neutrals followed suit. Today it is observed in most areas of North America and Europe, hardly at all in Africa, Asia and Antarctica. In South America and Oceania, some areas change the clocks, others do not.

In Canada, it’s a bit mixed. Saskatchewan does not technically observe DST but rather observes a skewed ‘standard time’ that has been advanced one hour forward permanently (that is, observing what is sometimes known as ‘year-round Daylight Savings Time.’

Part of the Peace River Regional District and the East Kootenay region of BC are on Mountain Time and do not observe DST. This means that in winter the regions are on the same time as Edmonton and in summer are on the same time as Vancouver.

Most of Ontario uses Daylight Savings Time. Pickle Lake, New Osnaburgh, and Atikokan, three communities located within the Central Time Zone in Northwestern Ontario, all observe Daylight Savings Time all year long. (This has the effect of having them on Central Time during the summer tourist season, and Eastern Time during the winter – without ever changing their clocks.)

Speaking of changing clocks, don’t forget that the clocks go back one hour on November 6th.

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