We're
officially
into fall
now, and
it won't
be long
until we
go back on
Standard
Time. I've
always
approached
this event
with a
feeling of
bemused
aggravation.
The
bemusement
is because
of the
illogic of
it. The
aggravation
has been
less
severe
since I
retired;
nowadays I
don't
really
care what
time it is
when I get
up, but
when I was
working I
hated
getting up
an hour
earlier in
the spring
I
suppose
the
illogic
bothers
people of
my age
more than
younger
generations,
who appear
to accept
Daylight
Saving
Time as
the
natural
order of
things. My
daughter
got a
sundial a
couple of
years ago,
and we
spent some
time
setting it
up in the
back yard.
It was a
cloudy
day, but
we had a
compass
and after
some
flummoxing
around we
got it
lined up
so XII
(noon) was
pointed
exactly
north. The
next day
my
daughter
called to
inform me
that
either my
compass or
my eyes
were not
working
right,
because
the sun
was out
and at
noon the
sundial
read
11:00. I
explained
to her
that the
discrepancy
was not my
fault; it
occurred
because
the sun
stayed on
Standard
Time all
year. I
think she
believed
me,
although
she
received
this news
with
surprise.
Benjamin
Franklin
proposed
the idea
of
Daylight
Saving
Time in an
essay
written in
1784,
while he
was
ambassador
to France.
Some
people
thought it
was
another
example of
Ben's
brilliance,
but most
folks were
of the
opinion
that he
had too
much free
time on
his hands.
I've
always
figured
the fact
that the
idea
didn't
catch on
was one
more
indication
of the
wisdom of
our
founding
fathers.
Nevertheless,
the idea
didn't go
away.
Germany
adopted
DST during
World War
I, and
achieved a
significant
saving in
energy
costs, and
after the
war
England
and France
did the
same.
Determined
not to be
left
behind, in
1918, the
U. S.
Congress
passed a
law
enacting
it, over
Pres.
Wilson's
veto;
however,
the
American
voters
agreed
vociferously
with
Wilson,
and
Congress
quickly
repealed
it.
I first
encountered
DST in
1942, when
Pres.
Roosevelt
enacted it
to save
energy and
improve
industrial
efficiency
during
wartime.
We called
it "fast
time" back
then, and
to my
family,
living on
a farm, it
seemed
like a
pretty
silly
idea. To
us, the
rooster
started
crowing
when the
sun came
up,
regardless
of whether
we called
it 5 AM or
6 AM. We
couldn't
understand
why, if
certain
factories
claimed to
benefit
from it,
they
couldn't
just tell
their
employees
to come to
work an
hour
earlier in
the
summer,
and leave
the rest
of us in
peace. One
of our
neighbors,
a
90-year-old
farmer who
was still
driving
one of the
original
Model T
Fords, was
still
angry at
Congress
for
messing up
the time
back in
1918. I
stopped by
his house
one day,
on the way
home from
the
hayfield,
to get a
drink of
water, and
there in
the parlor
stood a
grandfather's
clock,
soberly
ticking
away and
reading an
hour
earlier
than my
watch. I
remember
that I
felt some
admiration
for the
old
gentleman
for
sticking
to his
principles.
Roosevelt
originally
mandated
DST only
for the
duration
of the
war, but
the genie
was out of
the
bottle.
When the
original
mandate
ran out,
there was
a period
of chaos.
Some
states,
districts,
counties
and
municipalities
decided to
be modern
and have
it, while
others
elected to
stay on
Standard
Time; when
you drove
from one
place to
another,
you never
were sure
whether
you were
going to
arrive an
hour early
or an hour
late.
Congress
came to
the rescue
again and
enacted a
law
requiring
each state
to choose
between
DST and
Standard
Time, and
setting
nation-wide
dates for
setting
clocks in
the spring
and fall.
I believe
all but
three
states now
use DST.
My
father
worked at
an
aluminum
mill as
well as
running
the family
farm, and
when the
war
started he
was
assigned
to the
night
shift.
Many
workers
complained
about
this, so
to treat
everyone
alike the
mill
started
rotating
shifts.
The
workers
all
changed
each week…
one week
on day
shift, the
next on
evenings,
and then a
week on
nights.
This
reduced
the
complaining,
but
produced a
variety of
health
disruptions;
for
example,
my father
was one of
many who
developed
ulcers.
Initially
this was
attributed
to the
stress of
wartime,
but after
the war
ended it
did not go
away.
Ecologists
had
discovered
some 10
years
earlier
that
animals
have
regular
patterns
of
activity
that can
only be
explained
by some
kind of
internal
time-measuring
mechanisms…
what we
now call
biological
clocks…
which
enable
them to
start
migrating
south or
to prepare
for
hibernation
when the
days grow
short in
the fall.
In those
days it
wasn't
widely
known that
humans
also can
measure
time
biologically;
but when
travel by
jet planes
became
common, it
was found
that
moving
frequently
across
several
time zones
produced
the same
effect as
changing
work
shifts,
and
"jetlag"
entered
our
vocabulary.
At the
same time
the navy,
in
anticipation
of having
crews
isolated
for long
periods on
nuclear
submarines,
was doing
experiments
in which
volunteers
lived in
sound- and
light-proof
rooms for
months at
a time.
These
experiments
showed
that
people
soon
adjust
their
activities
to
approximately
24-hour
periods,
even
though
they were
without
clocks or
calendars,
and that
they were
less
efficient
and less
healthy if
forced to
follow
activity
patterns
that were
not based
on 24-hour
cycles.
We now
know that
all living
things
measure
time and
use the
changing
length of
days and
nights as
seasons go
by to
regulate
their life
activities.
In plants,
seed
germination,
blooming
of
flowers,
falling of
leaves and
winter
dormancy
are just a
few of the
things
regulated
by
biological
clocks. In
animals,
migration,
hibernation,
breeding
cycles,
and color
change by
molting
are
examples.
Genes
which
regulate
the
ability to
measure
time have
been
discovered;
we still
don't know
exactly
how they
work, but
I expect
we will
before
another
decade
passes.
Since
it is now
well known
that
sudden
changes in
activity
patterns
are not
good for
us, I
think we
would be
better off
if we
scrapped
the whole
system of
Daylight
Saving
Time and
designed a
new one.
Sunrise
should be
designated
as 6 AM
and sunset
as 6 PM;
noon would
be when
the sun is
straight
overhead.
Every
clock and
watch
should be
provided
with a
computer
chip that
would make
it run
slower in
the
daytime
and faster
at night
in the
summer,
and vice
versa in
the
winter, so
days and
nights
would
always be
12 hours
long. The
computer
chips
could be
coordinated
by global
positioning
satellites
to
compensate
for
latitude,
so the
farther
north you
go, the
slower the
hours
would pass
in the
daytime,
and so on.
Since this
is the way
our bodies
work
anyhow, it
would
eliminate
the need
for DST
entirely.
The only
problem
then would
be among
people who
get jet
lag by
traveling
east and
west too
quickly.
I'm still
working on
that.