A Brief History of Time Change – Spring Forward

By Doug Marrin

This Saturday night, after most of us have gone to bed, time will spring forward into Daylight Savings Time, and with it, our excitement blooms like crocus’ in the snow. Spring is coming.

Cutely designed internet reminders will flutter across the internet like returning butterflies telling us, “Don’t forget to set your clocks forward one hour.” Ironically, these are posted and read on phones and computers that automatically change the time for us. Perhaps our posts should simply say, “Don’t forget to look at your phone.”

But the internet buzz is healthy. It is our way of celebrating the anticipation of spring. We “spring forward” in time to extend the daylight into the evening, bringing an abrupt end to the dark, claustrophobic days of winter. Put away the therapy light and change the batteries in the smoke detectors. The mood lift is worth losing an hour of sleep and a week of systemic adjustment.

The original intention of Daylight Saving Time (called “Summer Time” in many places in the world) was to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks at the end of winter to move an hour of sunlight from the morning to the evening. In the fall, we carry that hour of light back to the morning.

The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in his essay, “An Economical Project.” Not much was done with the idea until more than a century later when, in April of 1916, during World War I, Germany and Austria began saving an hour of daylight by advancing the hands of the clock one hour until the following October. The extended hour of light was designed to conserve the fuel needed to produce electric power.

Other countries quickly followed. The U.S. formally adopted “An Act to Preserve Daylight and Provide Standard Time for the United States” in 1918. But in the predominantly agricultural society, people generally rose earlier in the morning and went to bed earlier in the evening. Nobody likes going to bed when it's still light out. The Act was wildly unpopular and was repealed in 1919.

During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Saving Time, calling it “War Time.” Afterward, from 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law regarding Daylight Saving Time, so states and localities were free to choose whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time. They could decide for themselves when it began and ended. This understandably caused confusion, especially for businesses based on schedules, such as the broadcasting industry, railways, airlines, and bus companies.e

President Nixon federally standardized the practice during the energy crisis of the 1970s by signing into law the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act of 1973. In 2007, the Legislature determined Daylight Savings time would begin at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday of March and end at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of November. The time of 2:00 a.m. was chosen to minimize disruption.

Some people would like to see the practice of moving time back and forth ended. Now and then, a bill gets introduced to do away with it. But eliminating Daylight Savings Time would mean staying on Eastern Standard Time year-round. In June, Michigan would see the sunset around 8:00 p.m., and sunrise would be around 5:00 a.m. Few people in the Great Lake State, residents or vacationers, want to sleep through an hour of daylight in the morning for earlier darkness at night.

Practical reasons set aside, Daylight Savings Time, gives us a point of contact where we can begin working ourselves out of our winter cocoon soon to flutter about freely in the warming sun. It is a reminder of the promise that with every winter, there comes a spring.

Photo by Melanie Morales on Unsplash