Did You Set Your Clocks Back?

Measuring time is nothing new. They’ve found time measuring devices dating back to 1500 BC in ancient Egypt. The first mechanical clocks were invented sometime in the 11th century. People have had clocks and had been carrying around pocket watches since the 1400s.

But for hundreds of years all those clocks were working off of local time (based around noon being when the sun is directly over your head wherever you are).

Greenwitch Mean Time was established in the United Kingdom in 1848 and the United States and Canada first had their time standardized and zoned in 1883 by the railway industry (Railroad Time) in order to coordinate their train schedules.

Daylight Savings Time was established in the United Kingdom in 1916 in an efficiency measure during World War I. Two years later, on March 19, 1918, the United States also adopted Daylight Savings Time – and at the same time established Standard Time.

Daylight Savings Time has been controversial since it was introduced and there have been many enactments, adjustments, and repeals all over the world. In fact just this year, Western Australians voted to reject Daylight Savings Time (for the fourth time since 1975).

Despite my personal views, we have chosen to observe Daylight Savings Time in my household - but if I didn’t have a job or ever want to see a movie on time, or make any kind of appointments or know when a place is going to close, I might not. Also I didn’t need to set back the clock in the basement bathroom, because I never set it forward last Spring.