Why Do We Turn Clocks Back?

Every year, Americans turn their clocks back one hour in the fall, marking the beginning of Daylight Saving Time.

In fact, "spring forward, fall back" is as ingrained in many people's consciousness as "i before e" and other aphorisms.

However, not too many people actually understand why we make the switch.

A version of Daylight Saving Time was first proposed in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin.

He felt that changing the time in the winter would allow for less use of lighting fuel.

However, nothing more was heard about this concept until 1907, when William Willett suggested it in England.

That country put this idea into use, in the form of British Summer Time, in 1916.

Clocks were turned ahead an hour during the summer.

The United States also enacted Daylight Saving Time during World War I, for seven months in the winter of 1918 and 1919.

However, it was very unpopular, and the law was repealed.

To save energy, people turned the clocks back during World War II, as well, until September 30, 1945.

There was no law about this between 1946 and 1966, and different states and towns chose to turn their clocks back on an individual basis.

This got pretty confusing, so the Uniform time Act of 1966 was passed to make sure that any are that did observe the time change did it at the same time.

That doesn't mean that anyone had to turn clocks back, but those who did so did it at the same time as everybody else.

In 1973, most of the country was put onto this method of time change because of the oil embargo.

This worked well, but Congress ended the experiment in 1975 because farming states were generally opposed to it.

This period of turning the clocks back did tell us what the advantages of the time change are.

It saves energy, because people are less likely to be asleep when the sun is up and are awake less time at night. It helps prevent traffic accidents, especially when people are walking home from school or work.

If they walk in the daylight, they're less likely to be hurt than if they walk at dusk or in the dark. Traveling in the daylight also means that fewer people will be victims of crimes on their way home.

These are the answers to the question of why do we turn clocks back.

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