

which used the flow of water in or out of a vessel to measure the passage of time. The ancient Romans and Greeks advanced the concept of tracking time by inventing water clocks.

The time on a sundial is logically called solar time, or true local time, whereas the time on a clock is called mean solar time. Because they had no moving parts, sundials were easy to build and proliferated quickly. Sundials were the first invention to keep track of time. Since the dawn of man, time has been measured based on the sun’s position in the sky. The Associated Press and FOX TV Digital Team contributed to this report. The only states not observing daylight time are Hawaii and Arizona, except for the latter’s Navajo reservations, which do.ĭST is not observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the state of Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Indian Reservation). It codified daylight saving time, although it has been periodically modified, particularly the start and end dates. That meant driving relatively short distances could result in a time change or three.īy 1966, airlines and other clock-watching businesses tired of such quirks and pushed Congress to pass the Uniform Time Act. It was again adopted in World War II.Īfter each war, Congress rescinded the national laws, but many people liked the extra hour of sunshine at the end of summer days, so some states and even cities observed daylight saving time while others kept standard time year-round. By moving the clocks ahead an hour, backers believed the country could divert a bit of coal-fired electricity to the military instead of using it for an hour of home power. in 1918 as a way to create more sunlit hours when the weather is the warmest.ĭuring the long days of summer, the sun rose in some northern regions between 4 and 5 a.m., when most non-farmers were asleep. Department of Commerce, daylight saving time, or DST, started in the U.S.
