Dragaera

Time and longitude

Tue Feb 15 12:57:38 PST 2005

> I knew someone who hated the idea of going on Zulu time - how could
> someone live if dawn hit at 9:00 PM? His position never made sense to
> me.  But then, Daylight Savings Time never made sense to me, especially
> since it was created before TV.

DST was instituted to maximize the use of natural daylight during
"daytime" hours. It's mainly for industrialized nations (even those
without television!). If you maximize daylight hours, you should be
able to reduce your use of artificial lighting during the "waking
day", meaning a reduction in the amount of fuel oil consumed to
generate electricity for lights and appliances. The US adopted it
during WW1, although the UK had done so some years before.

More information than you need here: 
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/index.html