Summer Time Ends
Having wasted an hour last night putting back my clocks (the mechanical ones need to be wound forward 23 hours to avoid breaking them) today I discovered why we sod about with this insanity of daylight saving time. We've guessed that it had something to do with blackouts in World War II or milking cows. Wrong. It was first tried out at the end of World War I to conserve fuel, but we can blame Londoner William Willis who wanted longer afternoons to play golf and ride his horse (CLICK)!
posted by Unknown @ 27.10.13
2 comments
2 Comments:
The central heating timer is a pain. It is a digital one that only has a "forward" button to update the time. After a few seconds the rate of change accelerates dramatically. However it is still slow enough to get inattentive while running through the 23 hours. It is easy to miss the critical points to remove your finger to restart in the slow mode.
Most of my household clocks with either analogue or digital displays are automatically synchronised by "MSF" radio signals.
At the Summer Time changes the hands on the analogue one either stand still for an hour - or race forward. Interesting to stay up late the first time to see it - or to watch the digital one match the BBC time pips on FM radio (DAB radio is always a few seconds slow).
Unfortunately the replacement "MSF" analogue mechanisms are not physically compatible with all modern "quartz" clock movements.
The battery operated ones only need a new battery every couple of years. To conserve power they only listen to renew the synchronisation once a day. Last year the garden clock was 40 minutes slow for a day owing to a corrupted update signal.
Hi, Kris
Even worse than I thought. My central heating adjustment is fiddly. My electric alarm clock is diabolical. The only thing that updates correctly is my computer.
Imagine all the problems all over the country, clocks in school classrooms, Big Ben, etc. It must cost a fortune to change all the country's clocks. Why not settle for something in between and avoid all this inconvenience and cost?
And my dogs' internal clocks are totally confused. They keep nagging for their breakfast and dinner an hour early.
Post a Comment
<< Home