April 27, 19 16] 



NATURE 



183 



THE DAYLIGHT SAVING SCHEME. 



CONSIDERATION is again being given to the 

 principle of ensuring the utilisation of a 

 larger number of hours of daylight in the summer 

 months by putting forward the hands of time- 

 pieces by one hour during a period made com- 

 pulsory by legislation. It was announced a few 

 days ago that, by order of the Federal Council 

 in Germany, all clocks there will be put forward 

 an hour at 11 p.m. on April 30, and put back 

 an hour at i a.m. on October i. The French 

 Chamber of Deputies has voted unanimously for a 

 similar proposal, and a committee of the Senate 

 has been appointed to consider it. Also, the Home 

 Secretary stated in the House of Commons on 

 April 17 that the question of taking the same 

 step here is receiving the attention of the Govern- 

 ment. 



It is possible that the committee of the French 

 Senate will report against the adoption of the 

 proposed alteration of standard time ; and sub- 

 stantial reasons for doing so can be found in a 

 critical survey of the whole subject presented to 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences, on April 10, by 

 M. Ch. Lallemand. The supposed advantages 

 of the daylight saving scheme are examined and 

 criticised, and the conclusion reached is strongly 

 adverse to the proposed change. It is shown that 

 many of the advantages claimed are illusory. In 

 j France more than four-fifths of the population 

 I in the open country and smaller towns regulate 

 j their habits by the sun rather than by the clock; 

 : foundries and factories running continuously over 

 the twenty-four hours would be unaffected. On 

 the other hand, the advantages of such a scheme 

 |have already been realised in a simpler manner 

 I'H French schools, colleges, and barracks, where 

 t has been customary for a long time to rise 

 ^ne hour earlier in the summer. 



We have dealt with the daylight saving prin- 



|-iple on many occasions and have stated the 



undamental objections to it. The scheme 



!>riginated with the late Mr. W. Willett ; and his 



nersistent advocacy of it led to the introduction 



a Daylight Saving Bill in the House of Com- 



ns in 1908. The Bill passed its second reading 



I was reported on favourably by a Select 



mmittee, but it failed to reach the final stages 



the House. It was re-introduced in the follow- 



. year, when a Select Committee reported 



ainst it, and again it failed to pass. In 191 1 



J scheme was once more brought before the 



(ouse under the title of the Summer Season 



Tie Bill, only to be dropped at the end of the 



sion. This Bill provided that "Greenwich 



in time, as used for the purposes of astronomy 



1 navigation, shall not be affected " ; but other- 



-e the legal times of the United Kingdom of 



at Britain and Ireland were to be advanced 



one hour on the third Sunday in April in each 



tr and put back by the same amount on the 



'd Sunday in September. Every spring since 



n the advocates of this legislative measure have 



ewed their activities in the Press; and this 



j NO. 2426, VOL. 97] 



year the circumstances of the war have given them 

 an exceptional opportunity of stating their argu- 

 ment that great saving in fuel used for lighting 

 would be effected by making the daylight saving 

 scheme compulsory'. 



We do not propose to attempt again to explain 

 why the scheme is fundamentally unsound 

 and scientifically undesirable, but it may 

 be worth while to state categorically some 

 of the main objections to it. These are as 

 follows : 



(i) A very large part of the population of our 

 islands already makes full use of the daylight 

 available in the different seasons, by adapting 

 their hours of work to the hours of daylight. 

 This is the case in all agricultural districts, and 

 also in the building, engineering, and other trades 

 which cannot be carried on easily in artificial 

 light. The proposed Act of Parliament would thus 

 not effect any daylight saving in these occupa- 

 tions ; and wherever artificial illumination is easy 

 and convenient, working hours will always tend 

 to be independent of the position of the sun. 



{2) Practically all the civilised nations of the 

 world use a system of time-reckoning based upon 

 the Greenwich meridian, their times being so 

 many hours or half-hours behind or in advance 

 of Greenwich time. If a periodical change of 

 the time-standards in various months by different 

 countries became the fashion, chaos would take 

 the place of the present orderly system. There 

 would be a kind of game of general post at certain 

 periods of the year, each nation taking the time 

 of its next eastern neighbour. Our prime meri- 

 dian, accepted by nations as regulating the time 

 of the world, would be discarded by us for five 

 months in ever)' year, in total disregard of exist- 

 ing well-considered and well-established inter- 

 national relations. 



{3) The scheme would be applied to the whole 

 of Great • Britain, though north of Edinburgh 

 there is little real darkness for a couple of months 

 in the summer. All places north of Edinburgh 

 have twilight all night from the end of April to 

 the end of July, and there would be no advantage 

 whatever in calling nine o'clock ten during those 

 months. When the effect of latitude upon the 

 length of day is considered, little support can be 

 found for including Scotland in the scheme. On 

 account of difference of latitude, Scotland has 

 already a natural extension of the daylight hours 

 in the summer months without any need for 

 legislation. 



(4) The duration of daylight in the third week 

 of April is quite different from that of the third 

 week in September. The corresponding parts of 

 the year as regards length of day are the third 

 week of April and the third week of August, or 

 the third week of March and the third week of 

 September. 



(5) As Greenwich mean time would continue 

 to be used for times of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, 

 lunar changes, tides, and other nhenomena of 

 astronomy and navigation recorded in calendars 

 and tables, the difference between this and clock- 



