It’s That Time…Again?

 

Well, this weekend we are due to go through our regular, twice yearly process of adjusting our clocks by one hour.  Someone somewhere came up with the idea that we should spring forward and fall back so as to save time, candle wax, or lamp oil; or so that farmers would have more daylight to plow by; or that shoppers would have more time to spend money; or some other equally idiotic thing.

I was told in school that the idea originated with no less a mind than that of Benjamin Franklin’s.

Well, I recently ran across the letter where Ol’ Ben first suggested the change and I have bad news for everyone.

Benjamin Franklin was just kidding!

——————————————

My readers know I like a good joke as much as the next guy.  Also, there have been times when people have been offended by my words, or didn’t get the joke, or whatever, but I doubt any miscommunication on my part has ever caused so many people so much aggravation as Ben’s joke did in that letter.

——————————————

One thing history seems to have gotten right is that Ol’ Ben liked to party.  After those parties the norm was to sleep in and start the recovery process.  But he wasn’t able to on one particular morning.

Evidently, after a night of camaraderie, probably accompanied by the consumption of adult beverages, he was awakened by a loud noise as 6:00 A.M.  At the party a new brand of oil lamp had been discussed that gave more light than the old standby and a conversation started as to whether it burned more kerosene than the old brand.  The scientists and mathematicians in the group wanted to know if the amount of bonus light was worth the added expense of the extra oil burned.

In these days of “flip a switch and the light comes on,” we have forgotten how good we’ve got it.  Even my parents remember what it was like living when light was at a premium.  In the evening anything that had to be done must be accomplished by the dim light of a kerosene lamp, or the even more feeble light of a candle.

Well, Mr. Franklin was visiting Paris on some diplomatic mission and, as has been said, enjoyed himself a bit too much.  He was trying to sleep it off but was jarred awake earlier than he desired.  As you all know, I don’t drink, but I have enough friends who do to have heard, on numerous occasions, complaints that the sun was too bright when they would rather sleep in, so I figure that is what Benjamin Franklin was thinking when he got awakened.

Brilliant mind that he was, he probably lay there wishing he was still asleep and feeling almost insulted that some people were already out-and-about at such an early hour.  So he thought about the logic of staying in bed versus that of getting up and had to face the fact that those early risers had a good idea, whether his current state made him feel like rousing or not.

So, wit that he was, he decided to make a joke out of the whole thing and write a letter, which he assumed everyone would figure out.

So he took quill in hand to write a humorous epistle, “to the authors of the journal of Paris”.

After an explanation longer than mine above, he said, “This event has given rise in my mind to several serious and important reflections.  I considered that, if I had not been awakened so early in the morning, I should have slept six hours longer by the light of the sun, and in exchange have lived six hours the following night by candle-light; and, the latter being a much more expensive light than the former, my love of economy induced me to muster up what little arithmetic I was master of, and to make some calculations, which I shall give you, after observing that utility is, in my opinion the test of value in matters of invention, and that a discovery which can be applied to no use, or is not good for something, is good for nothing…”  [From The Writings of Ben Franklin: An Economic Project]

Did you notice that last part, the one where he said, “a discovery which can be applied to no use, or is not good for something, is good for nothing…”?  He was coming right out and telling us it was all a joke!

——————————————

Now, Ben jokes that he tried to “muster up what little arithmetic I was master of” but the fact is, he was well know as a scientist, mathematician, and general scholar so, “doing the math,” as we would say now, was probably fun for him.

In the letter he then went on to estimate that a total of about 64 million pounds of wax would be saved in Paris alone over a six month period starting in spring if people woke up when the sun came up.  He then suggests a variety of methods to induce people who are “obstinately attached to (the) old custom” of getting up at noon to wake up with the sunrise, such as taxing people who have shutters on their windows, rationing candles, and waking people as soon as the sun comes up by ringing church bells and firing cannons.

——————————————

You see, Ol’ Ben was joking about the whole idea, but evidently a man named George Vernon Hudson resurrected, or regurgitated, it in 1895, but didn’t seem to get Ben’s joke.  Hudson explained his idea behind Daylight Savings Time and some people liked the idea.  Another man named William Willet brought it up again in 1905 when he was riding through London early one morning and noticed that a lot of the city dwellers slept through several hours of daylight during the bright sunlit summer day.  He began to lobby for the idea of Daylight Savings Time as a way to force people to get up earlier and didn’t give up for the rest of his life.  He passed away in 1915 but the next year certain European countries began to adopt the act of changing clocks twice a year.

——————————————

So now, when you forget to switch your clock this weekend and jump out of bed then hustle around getting the kids ready so you won’t be late for church, strap them in the car and hurry to your place of worship only to find it still locked tight, you’ll rattle the door and say, “You’ve GOT to be KIDDING ME!”  But now you’ll know that yes, yes, Benjamin Franklin was kidding you.

But wait, it’s fall so we’ll be “falling back”.  So you see, you’ll be on time and it’s me who will be late.

Dang it!  I HATE when that happens!

——————————————

It’s not such a funny joke though, is it?  I guess, after 100-plus years of Daylight Savings Time that did no good at all and served mainly to irritate people, Benjamin Franklin would agree when I say…

The joke’s on us!

 

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AT THE UPPER RIGHT.  IT’S FREE!

You will ONLY receive notifications when I post new entries to my blog.

Go to the top of the right hand column where it says, “SUBSCRIBE TO BLOG VIA EMAIL”.  Fill in your email and hit the “Subscribe” button.  You will receive a verification email.  Please confirm that you want to subscribe by clicking, “Confirm Follow” and you will be set!  Thanks!

It doesn’t seem to work from a cell phone, only a computer.  I don’t know why.  Sorry.  If there’s a problem, send me your email address and I’ll sign you up.