The law "to save daylight" was passed by Congress in After the war, however, state governments were left to decide whether they wanted to continue with the time change.
The law resurfaced during WWII but again, after the war, the time change decision was left to each state. Some states kept it and others abandoned it. Daylight saving time didn't officially become a law until , under the Uniform Time Act. Now, according to the Department of Transportation , daylight saving time reduces crime, conserves energy and even saves lives and prevents traffic injuries, since more people are traveling to and from places during the daylight.
Still, not everyone is a fan. After all, "springing forward" and losing an hour of sleep can hurt workers' productivity. Although a report by the National Bureau of Standards disputed the U. The argument in favor of saving energy swayed Indiana, where until , only about 16 percent of counties observed Daylight Saving Time.
Now that Indiana has made the switch, however, researchers have found the opposite to be the case. Scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, compared energy usage over the course of three years in Indiana counties that switched from year-round Standard Time to DST.
In cooler climates, for example, energy savings may well occur. In addition, some argue that there is a public health benefit to Daylight Saving Time, as it decreases traffic accidents.
Several studies in the U. An increase in accidents in the dark mornings is more than offset by the evening decrease in accidents. However, recent research indicates that pedestrian fatalities from cars soar at p. Walkers are three times as likely to be hit and killed by cars right after the switch than in the month before DST ends. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, who found a percent jump in the risk of being killed by a car for every mile walked, speculate that drivers go through an adjustment period when dusk arrives earlier.
Although the risk drops in the morning, because there are fewer pedestrians at a. This research corroborates a study by researchers at the University of Michigan, which found that 65 pedestrians were killed by car crashes in the week before DST ended, and pedestrians were killed in the week following the end of DST. There may also be an economic benefit to DST, as daylight evening hours encourage people to go out and shop, potentially spurring economic growth.
The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin portrait at right during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in , in an essay, "An Economical Project.
Some of Franklin's friends, inventors of a new kind of oil lamp, were so taken by the scheme that they continued corresponding with Franklin even after he returned to America. The idea was first advocated seriously by London builder William Willett in the pamphlet, " Waste of Daylight " , that proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and retarding them by the same amount on four Sundays in September.
As he was taking an early morning a ride through Petts Wood, near Croydon, Willett was struck by the fact that the blinds of nearby houses were closed, even though the sun was fully risen.
When questioned as to why he didn't simply get up an hour earlier, Willett replied with typical British humor, "What? Everyone laments their shortage as Autumn approaches; and everyone has given utterance to regret that the clear, bright light of an early morning during Spring and Summer months is so seldom seen or used. About one year after Willett began to advocate daylight saving he spent a fortune lobbying , he attracted the attention of the authorities.
Robert Pearce - later Sir Robert Pearce - introduced a bill in the House of Commons to make it compulsory to adjust the clocks. I saw it with my own eyes. And, having repeated this observation the three following mornings, I found always precisely the same result. Adjusting to a new system of sleeping and waking, based not on clocks but on the sun itself, Franklin, argued, would be simple:.
Oblige a man to rise at four in the morning, and it is more than probable he will go willingly to bed at eight in the evening; and, having had eight hours sleep, he will rise more willingly at four in the morning following. I demand neither place, pension, exclusive privilege, nor any other reward whatever.
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