as the inventor of DST. --- NEWS | 2 ++ europe | 20 +++++++++++++++++--- 2 files changed, 19 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index babfdac..1845ee8 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -186,6 +186,8 @@ Unreleased, experimental changes There is new commentary about time in Poland in 1919. + Proper credit has been given to DST inventor George Vernon Hudson. + Commentary about time in Metlakatla, AK and Resolute, NU has been improved, with a new source for the former. diff --git a/europe b/europe index 2ba3493..e87cc21 100644 --- a/europe +++ b/europe @@ -137,8 +137,22 @@ # transition date for London, namely 1847-12-01. We don't know as much # about Dublin, so we use 1880-08-02, the legal transition time. -# From Paul Eggert (2003-09-27): -# Summer Time was first seriously proposed by William Willett (1857-1915), +# From Paul Eggert (2014-07-19): +# The ancients had no need for daylight saving, as they kept time +# informally or via hours whose length depended on the time of year. +# Daylight saving time in its modern sense was invented by the +# New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson (1867-1946), +# whose day job as a postal clerk led him to value +# after-hours daylight in which to pursue his research. +# In 1895 he presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society +# that proposed a two-hour daylight-saving shift. See: +# Hudson GV. On seasonal time-adjustment in countries south of lat. 30 deg. +# Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. 1895;28:734 +# http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_28/rsnz_28_00_006110.html +# Although some interest was expressed in New Zealand, his proposal +# did not find its way into law and eventually it was almost forgotton. +# +# In England, DST was independently reinvented by William Willett (1857-1915), # a London builder and member of the Royal Astronomical Society # who circulated a pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight" (1907) # that proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, @@ -151,7 +165,7 @@ # A monument to Willett was unveiled on 1927-05-21, in an open space in # a 45-acre wood near Chislehurst, Kent that was purchased by popular # subscription and open to the public. On the south face of the monolith, -# designed by G. W. Miller, is the...William Willett Memorial Sundial, +# designed by G. W. Miller, is the William Willett Memorial Sundial, # which is permanently set to Summer Time. # From Winston Churchill (1934-04-28): -- 1.9.1