“Spring forward and fall back.” This statement’s relation to time is known the world over and holds significant meaning, especially, for countries practicing daylight saving time (DST). Daylight saving time represents an adjustment in time by moving forward one hour to increase the length of daylight in the evening, generally during the summer time. The practice is used for the summer because it robs one hour of daylight at the start of the day, rendering it impractical in winter. However, for people who follow the world clock, there is an added hour of daylight after regular work hours to engage in “daytime” activities of choice.
Records prove the use of daylight saving time for roughly 100 years but archaeologists have found evidence that earlier in human history, the sun’s schedule was the basis for developing daily schedules. In the year 1895, a New Zealand scientist George Vernon Hudson proposed a two-hour shift forward in October and back in March in a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society. Despite interest in the idea, it wasn’t carried out. However, in the year 1908, DST was used in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada and on April 30, 1916, Germany became the first country to do a whole scale implementation of DST.
Among the benefits daylight saving time is said to bring are the conservation of energy and fewer traffic accidents due to the presence of natural light during the time when traffic on the road is heaviest.