Every year, in over 70 countries of the world, clocks spring forward an hour in March and then again in November, they fall back by an hour, implementing the daylight saving time. Though we don't have any such concept in India, daylight saving is indeed an intriguing concept. Even though there are many states in the United States that are opposing the concept of daylight saving time and want to opt out of it, considering the health impacts as people have to adjust their sleeping hours accordingly, it's been more than 100 years that the concept is being widely observed. Here's everything you want to know about daylight saving time and its purpose.
Who invented the concept of Daylight Saving?
Back in 1895, New Zealand entomologist George Hudson made first such proposal to optimize time. A similar idea was proposed to the British Parliament by a builder named William Willett in 1905. But it wasn't until the 20th century that the concept was first implemented. During the First World War, when the Germans faced a shortage of coal supply, they began observing daylight saving time in order to conserve energy. Soon, the US and other countries followed suit. The US then also implemented the Uniform Time Act of 1966, specifying the beginning and ending of the daylight saving time in the country and making the time observance uniform across the states.
How does Daylight Saving work?
Every year in March or early April, countries situated in the northern hemisphere of the earth move their clocks one hour forward. Similarly, the clocks are set back one hour in September or November. Essentially, the whole idea is to gain an extra hour of daylight and adding it to the productive hours of the day. It's estimated that through this activity, over 10,000 barrels of oil can be saved each day since the businesses reduce the usage of power during the daylight. The aim is to maximize sunlight hours during the longer days of the year by taking one hour from the morning, when people are sleeping, and adding it to the end of the day. Simply speaking, if more daytime hours are available to the businesses, they're more likely to reduce their power consumption. Although, several studies have shown that the benefit in the energy conservation part is not much.
While there are many states in the US that are proposing bills to either put a full stop to this concept or implement it throughout the year, the government can't take a decision unless it doesn't work in the favour of a uniform time zone across the country.
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