德朵夫人

調整鐘錶的時間到了

一年兩次的時間調整日又到了，代表著夏季真的過去，無情的冬日馬上報到，住在高緯度國家，分明的四季與這兩天時光調整日，總是不斷提醒著我，一季又過一季又過，時間真的快得可怕呢。

在英國的朋友別忘了今晚子夜之後，把時針往後轉一小時，在台灣的親友別忘了我們之間的時差是8小時，這調整時間會不會有點自欺欺人，每年調來調去，真煩，而這裡的媒體也總是每年討論一次「Why Change the Clocks?」轉載一篇BBC的報導，有興趣這個議題的人，麻煩自己讀了。

http://www.bbc.co.uk/jersey/content/articles/2005/03/21/why_change_clocks_feature.shtml

Why Change the Clocks?

Our clocks go forward at 0100 on a Sunday in March and back in October. So the simple question is: Why?

Don't forget to put your clocks back an hour this Sunday, 30 October.

It happens twice a year. We all change our clocks and watches by one hour. In the spring, we add an hour, and go onto what is called British Summer Time, while in the autumn, we do the reverse, and adhere to Greenwich Mean Time.

Why bother?

It's all to do with saving the hours of daylight, and was started by a chap called William Willett, a London builder, who lived in Petts Wood in Kent.
Basically, he reckoned that you could improve the population's health and happiness by putting forward the clocks by twenty minutes every Sunday in April and do the opposite in September.

Economies

His idea was not taken up, even though a 'Daylight Saving Bill' was introduced some five years before the outbreak of World War One. But once the war started, it was considered prudent to economise, to promote greater efficiency in using daylight hours, and in the use of artificial lighting. And so in 1916, 'Daylight Saving Time' was introduced.

Even though most countries abandoned this after that war, some eventually decided that it was a good idea, and most of these nations began to keep it throughout the year.

Experiment

Since 1972, Britain has decided to go with Greenwich Mean Time in winter, and British Summer Time in Summer. But back in 1968, Britain tried a four-year experiment by advancing time one hour ahead of GMT throughout the year.
But those living further north, particularly in Scotland, found it most unsatisfactory, with dark mornings for much of the year, and the experiment was dropped.

But the arguments rage on....and on.

由 mrs.turtle 發表於 October 29, 2005 08:05 PM | 引用