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Daylight Savings Time was first proposed to save candles, everything after is a forced retcon. This equally anachronistic law fits with that quite well. We ar

Daylight Savings Time was first proposed to save candles, everything after is a forced retcon. This equally anachronistic law fits with that quite well. We are all very good at being modern humans.

HPsquared 3y ago
As electricity gets more expensive, that purpose may become more relevant again. Every 5W LED counts!
- Retric 3y ago
  Why do you think electricity is increasing? Inflation adjusted electricity costs have been steady or even falling. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU000072610 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU000072610 In August 1990 average retail rates where the equivalent of 20.49c/kWh (8.7), and 2010 18.35c/kWh (13.0), but in 2023 it’s only 17c/kWh.
  - tiernano 3y ago
    mine is closer to 30c/kWh currently... and thats cheaper than it was before...
jimnotgym 3y ago
My brother always said, 'why can't people just do the things they were going to do 1 hour earlier/ later rather than changing the clocks' Sometimes the obvious is too sensible.
- dale_glass 3y ago
  Probably because a clock is an easily changeable thing, but a schedule or an announcement is less so. Putting a "Opens at 8:00" on sign on your door involves a fair amount of effort of buying a physical piece of equipment. Changing an appointment may have required walking somewhere and talking to the right person. Before modern luxuries a million of such tiny adjustments would have required a lot of time and effort.
  - Karellen 3y ago
    One clock may be an easily changeable thing, but is it really that much easier than changing one sign? Besides, if you knew you'd be changing your opening times throughout the year, then when you ordered a sign you'd just order both signs at the same time, or maybe get a sign with replaceable numbers, or a sign with washable/writeable numbers for your opening times. Or you could just not bother, and pick a time that was "good enough" all year round. Why would you need to change an appointment? You'd just make it for the time you wanted on the day you intended to start with. But changing all the clocks, in a whole country (or on a whole continent), on the same day? You think that's easy? You've never got that wrong, or known anyone who got that wrong?
    - benj111 3y ago
      Have a look round at how many social distancing signs there still are. Signs don't get updated, so is that 8am opening the actual opening time or have they not updated the sign? And if you make an appointment for 8am at the other side of a (not) time change. Does that appointment change, or do you need to attend an hour earlier or later?
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
    - dale_glass 3y ago
      > One clock may be an easily changeable thing, but is it really that much easier than changing one sign? Mechanical clocks are imprecise and so need periodic adjustment. If you need good timing, then adjusting your clock periodically would be already baked in. Adjusting it differently would be essentially free. Communicating that you've changed your schedule though, that's a lot more work. Phones are a new tech not everyone has. Telegrams and letters cost money and labor. Plus there's an issue of synchronization. Imagine a whole bunch of people changing their schedules at different times. The barber changes schedule one day, the bakery the next, and the post office decides to wait until next Monday. It'd be pretty rough. > But changing all the clocks, in a whole country (or on a whole continent), on the same day? You think that's easy? You've never got that wrong, or known anyone who got that wrong? It's far easier and more reliable for a government to make a big announcement (radio, newspapers) and make a single, global change than for a lot of people to communicate with everyone else. In modern times this is a lot more practical, but communication used to be a lot harder.
- Joker_vD 3y ago
  > why can't people just do the things they were going to do 1 hour earlier/ later That's pretty much the result of the summer-winter time changes, but you don't have to have the plaques with hours of work read "9:00–17:00 Mon-Fri in winter; 10:00–16:00 Sat in winter; 8:00–16:00 Mon-Fri in summer; 9:00–15:00 Sat in summer".
- ljf 3y ago
  I guess it keeps things uniform - would all jobs follow that pattern? All schools? Pubs? When would the lunchtime rush? I mean there could be some great benefits (spread out the rush hour crush) but I think it would cause more confusion than the current system.
dwroberts 3y ago
It might have been proposed for that reason but it was actually enacted in England (in 1916) for war time productivity during WW1. It’s not really clear if it ever would have been adopted if it were not for the war. Edit: really interesting snippet I happened upon: > This Bill, as your Lordships know, will have effect only while the war lasts. It may therefore be regarded in the light of an emergency measure, and as an experiment. If the public are dissatisfied with the results produced, the Bill can easily not be renewed at some future time. That didn’t turn out as expected eh
- AnimalMuppet 3y ago
  Nothing is more permanent than a temporary measure.
- BoxOfRain 3y ago
  I believe income tax in the UK was a wartime measure during the Napoleonic Wars that never got removed, and the national speed limit of 70 mph was another 'limited' measure after someone hit 185 mph in an AC Cobra during the 1960s.
andylynch 3y ago
That came later. In 1895 a New Zealand entomologist first floated the idea to gain more insect collecting time after work. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TPRSNZ1895-28.2.7.1.5 https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TPRSNZ1895-28....
- suprjami 3y ago
  Ben Franklin's candle satire was over 100 years earlier than that. Source: He was long dead by 1895.

Daylight Savings Time was first proposed to save candles, everything after is a forced retcon. This equally anachronistic law fits with that quite well. We are all very good at being modern humans.

HPsquared 3y ago

As electricity gets more expensive, that purpose may become more relevant again. Every 5W LED counts!

Retric 3y ago
Why do you think electricity is increasing? Inflation adjusted electricity costs have been steady or even falling. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU000072610 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU000072610 In August 1990 average retail rates where the equivalent of 20.49c/kWh (8.7), and 2010 18.35c/kWh (13.0), but in 2023 it’s only 17c/kWh.
- tiernano 3y ago
  mine is closer to 30c/kWh currently... and thats cheaper than it was before...

jimnotgym 3y ago

My brother always said, 'why can't people just do the things they were going to do 1 hour earlier/ later rather than changing the clocks' Sometimes the obvious is too sensible.

dale_glass 3y ago
Probably because a clock is an easily changeable thing, but a schedule or an announcement is less so. Putting a "Opens at 8:00" on sign on your door involves a fair amount of effort of buying a physical piece of equipment. Changing an appointment may have required walking somewhere and talking to the right person. Before modern luxuries a million of such tiny adjustments would have required a lot of time and effort.
- Karellen 3y ago
  One clock may be an easily changeable thing, but is it really that much easier than changing one sign? Besides, if you knew you'd be changing your opening times throughout the year, then when you ordered a sign you'd just order both signs at the same time, or maybe get a sign with replaceable numbers, or a sign with washable/writeable numbers for your opening times. Or you could just not bother, and pick a time that was "good enough" all year round. Why would you need to change an appointment? You'd just make it for the time you wanted on the day you intended to start with. But changing all the clocks, in a whole country (or on a whole continent), on the same day? You think that's easy? You've never got that wrong, or known anyone who got that wrong?
  - benj111 3y ago
    Have a look round at how many social distancing signs there still are. Signs don't get updated, so is that 8am opening the actual opening time or have they not updated the sign? And if you make an appointment for 8am at the other side of a (not) time change. Does that appointment change, or do you need to attend an hour earlier or later?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - dale_glass 3y ago
    > One clock may be an easily changeable thing, but is it really that much easier than changing one sign? Mechanical clocks are imprecise and so need periodic adjustment. If you need good timing, then adjusting your clock periodically would be already baked in. Adjusting it differently would be essentially free. Communicating that you've changed your schedule though, that's a lot more work. Phones are a new tech not everyone has. Telegrams and letters cost money and labor. Plus there's an issue of synchronization. Imagine a whole bunch of people changing their schedules at different times. The barber changes schedule one day, the bakery the next, and the post office decides to wait until next Monday. It'd be pretty rough. > But changing all the clocks, in a whole country (or on a whole continent), on the same day? You think that's easy? You've never got that wrong, or known anyone who got that wrong? It's far easier and more reliable for a government to make a big announcement (radio, newspapers) and make a single, global change than for a lot of people to communicate with everyone else. In modern times this is a lot more practical, but communication used to be a lot harder.
Joker_vD 3y ago
> why can't people just do the things they were going to do 1 hour earlier/ later That's pretty much the result of the summer-winter time changes, but you don't have to have the plaques with hours of work read "9:00–17:00 Mon-Fri in winter; 10:00–16:00 Sat in winter; 8:00–16:00 Mon-Fri in summer; 9:00–15:00 Sat in summer".
ljf 3y ago
I guess it keeps things uniform - would all jobs follow that pattern? All schools? Pubs? When would the lunchtime rush? I mean there could be some great benefits (spread out the rush hour crush) but I think it would cause more confusion than the current system.

dwroberts 3y ago

It might have been proposed for that reason but it was actually enacted in England (in 1916) for war time productivity during WW1. It’s not really clear if it ever would have been adopted if it were not for the war. Edit: really interesting snippet I happened upon: > This Bill, as your Lordships know, will have effect only while the war lasts. It may therefore be regarded in the light of an emergency measure, and as an experiment. If the public are dissatisfied with the results produced, the Bill can easily not be renewed at some future time. That didn’t turn out as expected eh

AnimalMuppet 3y ago
Nothing is more permanent than a temporary measure.
BoxOfRain 3y ago
I believe income tax in the UK was a wartime measure during the Napoleonic Wars that never got removed, and the national speed limit of 70 mph was another 'limited' measure after someone hit 185 mph in an AC Cobra during the 1960s.

andylynch 3y ago

That came later. In 1895 a New Zealand entomologist first floated the idea to gain more insect collecting time after work. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TPRSNZ1895-28.2.7.1.5 https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TPRSNZ1895-28....

suprjami 3y ago
Ben Franklin's candle satire was over 100 years earlier than that. Source: He was long dead by 1895.