Germany turned clocks forward in 1916 to save coal
Shifting summer clocks by one hour is meant to stretch daylight into the evening. Yet the idea took decades to catch on, farmers often hated it, and energy savings remain disputed. Today only about a third of countries still observe it.
Daylight saving time advances clocks in spring and rolls them back in autumn so that evening daylight lasts longer. The familiar mnemonic—spring forward, fall back—captures a practice now used mainly in Europe and North America. As of 2023, roughly thirty-four percent of the world's countries still observe it, though many have abandoned it entirely.
Benjamin Franklin satirized early rising in a 1784 Paris letter, but he never proposed moving clocks. New Zealand entomologist George Hudson first suggested a two-hour seasonal shift in 1895; William Willett pushed British Summer Time from 1907. The first local adoption came in Port Arthur and Fort William, Ontario, in 1908. Germany and Austria-Hungary launched the first nationwide schemes on 30 April 1916, during the First World War, to conserve coal.
Industrial societies run on fixed clock schedules, unlike agrarian life governed by sunrise and sunset. At temperate latitudes, shifting 04:30 sunrise to feel like 05:30 lets workers enjoy daylight after a nine-to-five day. Proponents argue people prefer evening light; critics note that claimed energy savings are heavily disputed once heating, cooling, and driving are counted. A persistent American myth credits farmers as beneficiaries—yet farmers were among the strongest lobbyists against the change because milking and dew still follow the sun.
The United States first tried wartime daylight saving in 1918, tried year-round "War Time" again in World War II, and standardized rules under the Uniform Time Act of 1966. Congress briefly imposed permanent daylight saving from January 1974, but complaints about dark winter mornings for schoolchildren led to repeal by October. Authorities now usually change clocks at midnight on weekends. Exceptions include Lord Howe Island's thirty-minute shift and Troll research station's two-hour jump between GMT and CEST.
Source: Daylight saving time
