DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

A few weeks into daylight savings time, a little bit of trivia may be in order.

–          There is some dispute as to who invented daylight savings time.  Ben Franklin first published a paper that put the idea forward.  But the first proposed plan for it came from an entomologist from New Zealand in 1895.

–          The greatest benefit of daylight savings time is to save energy, as it stays light later into the evening.  That saves much more than it costs, as we use more energy after work, at night, than we do rushing out the door in the morning.

–          Congress tried to institute daylight savings time twice to save energy in wartime, first at the onset of World War I, and again a few months into World War II.  The idea did not catch, and both times, the law was repealed right away.

–          DST finally caught on with the Energy Crisis of the 1970s.

–          It was expanded a few extra weeks when gas peaked over $4 a gallon in the 2000s.