Events
Every time we have to change the time on the clock, we consider this phenomenon to be unfair. If this seems justified to us in winter — after all, you can sleep for one hour more, then in spring opinions change dramatically. We wonder why this was invented, because we're wasting one hour of precious time. And I don't want to get up: even if the clock shows 7 am, according to an old habit, it is 6 am for us. Benjamin Franklin should be thanked for this, at least Americans can do it.
Franklin, who became the author of one of the most common proverbs in America: “who goes to bed early and gets up early will make money” (Russian analogue: “Who He gets up early, God gives him”), was the first to suggest the transition of time. Back in 1784, in an essay he published, he wrote that you can save on candles if you change the clock in spring.
In the US, the history of the transition of time is ambiguous. The practice of using this method was first introduced in 1918, and a year later it was abolished. During World War II, Americans returned to summer time to save energy from 1942 to 1945.
In 1966, the United States officially passed the Single Time Act, which stipulated that clocks must be changed on the last Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October. By an act of 2005, this system was changed: the clock is now changed to 2 am on the second Sunday in March and at 2 am on the first Sunday in November.
The most interesting thing is that states are not at all obliged to comply with the federal government's decision on this issue. Two states, Arizona and Hawaii, do not change their clocks to summer time.
In Russia, the history of the transition to summer time is also ambiguous: it was introduced by the Provisional Government by decree of July 1, 1917. Hence its name — maternity time. It was abolished in 1931 and reintroduced on April 1, 1981.
Are we really saving, and was Franklin right in proposing summer time? This doesn't really work at the moment.
In the 1970s, the US Department of Transportation announced that energy consumption was reduced by 1 percent due to the transition to summer time. However, recent studies have shown that this percentage is covered by the use of air conditioners in hot states.