Sooo we successfully switched to summer time again!
But this transition hasn't always been so seamless as we all know it, so let's dive into some fun facts about it's implementation and history:
- Official name is Daylight Saving Time (DST), but among people summer time got adopted
- Also, many people don't realize this immediately, but summer time change is not global but rather just for either southern or norhtern hemisphere
- First-ever person to mention the possibility of time change was Benjamin Frankin 1784 in one of his satirical essays "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". He made fun of it that once people will optimize their day according to sunlight.
- First official DST implementation happened in World War I. by Germans. They pushed this concept to the law because they've seen it as an option of saving coal by soldiers sleeping mostly during the dark and wake up earlier with the sun. Rest of European countries quickly followed and US joned them in 1918
Newspapers letting US citiens know about the upcoming change...Picture source
- In September 1999, West Bank terrorist didn't realize Israel had already switched back to standard time and their bombs exploded 1 hour earlier. All three terrorist died but at least they've managed to win the Darwin Award that year.
- Many researchers have been continually claiming that it doesn't save energy because e.g. in many countries, using AC during during the day actually needs more energy than having the light on in the evening.
- Candy industry in US has been lobying for years for summer time to be shifted by couple of weeks, so the Halloween night will benefit from one extra hour of light for kids to collect sweets around the neighborhood. One sweets company went even so far, then before meeting of politicians regarding summer time, they gave out each politician a bag of sweets upon arrival to the building.
- Because of the later sunset, many TV shows suffer a drop in viewership. Singing competition American Idol reported 10% drop from week to week after time change happened.
Real name
Not global
First written mention of the concept
First implementation in law
It prevented terrorist attack
It actually does not save energy
Halloween industry likes it
TV industry doesn't like it
Thanks for reading! Martin
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You can find my latest posts here:
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- Are we getting more and more STUPID!? ...DEFENSE of 2 latest generations and the cloud storage
- Dilemma - fiction vs non-fiction...Am I a SLAVE of my own brain??
- Can travelling get cheaper than this?
- Writing down notes after jiu-jitsu practice
Mother tongue version
Tak a mame za sebou zmenu na letny cas a uz aj prve vstavanie do prace/skoly o hodinu skor!
V minulosti vsak tato zmena nebola vobec taka jednoducha a samozrejma. Preto som vybral par zaujmavosti, ktore Vas (a ani mna) doteraz v spojeni s letnym casom vobec nenapadli:
- Oficialne meno je v preklade Cas setriaci denne svetlo no ludia ho zjednodusili a pouzivaju letny cas.
- Vela ludi si taktiez neuvedomuje, ze letny cas nieje vsade rovnaky a nefunguje globalne, ale vzdy len pre jednu hemisferu. Taktiez sa jeho implementacia lisi aj od statu ku statu.
- Prvy clovek, ktory kedy spomenul podobny koncept bol Benjamin Franklin v roku 1784. V jednej z jeho satirickych eseji "Clovek zdravy, bohaty a mudry, zavcas do postele ide a skoro rano vstava" zosmiesnoval predstavu, ze ludia raz budu svoj den optimizovat podla denneho svetla.
- Prvykrat bol tento cas zakonom ustanoveny Nemcami pocas prvej svetovej vojny. Zamer tohoto pokusu bolo usetrit uhlie na kurenie tym, ze vojaci budu spat co najviac za tmy a vstavat skor po vyjdeni slnka. Zvysok europskych krajin nasledovalo Nemecko v nadchadzajucich rokoch a USA sa pridali v 1918.
- V septembri 1999, teroristi zabudli, ze vyrobcovia ich bomby z Izraela uz zmenili cas a bomba im explodovala o hodinu skor. Vsetci traja utocnici zahynuli pri vybuchu no aspon sa im nasledujuci rok podarilo vyhrat Darwinovu cenu.
- Vela vedcov kontinualne tvrdi, ze povodny plan setrit energiu s letnym casom nefunguje. Vo vela krajinach, kde su pocas dna zapnute klimatizacie je spotreba este vyssia, kedze hodina zapnutej klimatizacie je energeticky narocnejsia ako hodina svietenia lampy vecer.
- Vyrobcovia sladkosti dlhe roky lobuju v Amerike za posunutie letneho casu par tyzdnov dopredu, aby Haloween spadal do tohoto intervalu. To by sposobilo, ze deti mozu behat po susedoch o hodinu dlhsie a tak sa celkovo rozda viac sladkosti a priemyslu sa zvysi zisk. Raz dokonca jedna firma pred rokovanim ohladom letneho casu rozdala vsetkym rokujucim pri prichode do budovy lizatka.
- Kvoli neskorsiemu zapadu slnka zazivaju televizne relacie pravidelny pokles sledovanosti po zmene casu na letny. Show Amerika hlada superstar pocas jednoho rocnika oznamila az 10% pokles sledovanosti z tyzdna na tyzden - a to prave po zmene casu.