Popular Science Monthly 



547 



sumers by $2,375,000. Electric light 

 companies reported a reduction of out- 

 put averaging about 20 per cent. The 

 saving in illuminating oils was reported 

 at 2^4 per cent, of the annual consump- 

 tion. In France the saving in fuel used 

 for illuminating purposes was estimated 

 at ten per cent, of the annual consump- 

 tion. In Germany the municipal gas 

 works at Berlin reported a decrease dur- 

 ing May and June, 1916, of 508,500 cubic 

 meters, in spite of the fact that 18,000 

 new gas meters were installed during the 

 first six months of the same year, and 

 the records from January to April 

 showed an increase of 2,400,000 cubic 

 meters of gas as compared with 1915. 



Estimates vary as to the saving of fuel 

 we may hope to effect by the adoption 

 of the daylight-saving plan in the United 

 States. When this phase of the question 

 was discussed in hearings before a Con- 

 gressional committee, Mr. R. I. Brunet, 

 of the Rhode Island Committee on 

 Public Safety, declared that in the city 

 of Providence alone an annual saving of 

 $60,000 was anticipated, and that in the 

 country at large the saving would amount 

 to something like $40,000,000. The Bos- 

 ton Chamber of Commerce estimates 

 that the country will save $100,000,000 

 annually in the use of artificial light, on 

 the basis of extending the plan to the 



entire year. The city of Cleveland is said 

 to have saved $200,000 during the first 

 six months after changing from Central 

 to Eastern Time (thus permanently ad- 

 vancing the clocks by an hour). 



By beginning their day an hour earlier 

 than has heretofore been customary, 

 people gain an extra hour of daylight 

 after the rejular day's work is over. 

 This affords greater opportunities for 

 out-of-doors recreation, and the change 

 seems to be popular in middle European 

 latitudes, except with the agricultural 

 population, which has expressed some 

 dissatisfaction at being obliged to ad- 

 vance a working schedule which was al- 

 ready well adjusted to the daylight period. 

 Workers in other lines have, in some cases, 

 enthusiastically described the effects of 

 the plan as "giving them a Saturday 

 half -holiday all the week." 



It is also reported in England that the 

 extra daylight in the afternoon has en- 

 couraged the cultivation of gardens. 

 Much stress has been laid upon this fea- 

 ture of the scheme in the United States, 

 where it is hoped that daylight-saving 

 will increase the general food supply and 

 also help the individual citizen to solve 

 the problem of high prices by raising 

 part of the food needed for his own 

 table. It is not at all clear, however, v/hy 

 the advancing of the working hours in 



HOUR OF DAY 



OLD TIME 



10 11 12. 



lO 11 12 



Oo 



2 o( 



WASTED 

 DAYLIGHT 



HOURS 



OF 



WORK 



HOURS 



OF 



PLAY 



1 





NIGHT — 'X- 



HOUR OF DAY 



D A.V 



->k-r-N IGHT 



DAYLGHT SAVING TIME 



10 U \-L 1 



lO 11 12 



2o 



O 



o 



> 1 



-NIGHT >k 



WASTED 

 DAYLIGHT 



HOURS 



OF 



WORK 



HOURS 



OF 



PLAY 



D AY 



->U — NIGHT 



Here are the twenty-four hours graphically illustrated. Notice that the work hours remain the 

 same but the play hours increase. It is switching an hour from the morning to the playtime 



