Posted on 11/01/2014 2:18:53 PM PDT by right-wing agnostic
To THE AUTHORS of The Journal of Paris 1784 MESSIEURS, You often entertain us with accounts of new discoveries. Permit me to communicate to the public, through your paper, one that has lately been made by myself, and which I conceive may be of great utility. I was the other evening in a grand company, where the new lamp of Messrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced, and much admired for its splendour; but a general inquiry was made, whether the oil it consumed was not in proportion to the light it afforded, in which case there would be no saving in the use of it. No one present could satisfy us in that point, which all agreed ought to be known, it being a very desirable thing to lessen, if possible, the expense of lighting our apartments, when every other article of family expense was so much augmented. I was pleased to see this general concern for economy, for I love economy exceedingly. I went home, and to bed, three or four hours after midnight, with my head full of the subject. An accidental sudden noise waked me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light; and I imagined at first, that a number of those lamps had been brought into it; but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to see what might be the occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted, the preceding evening, to close the shutters.
(Excerpt) Read more at webexhibits.org ...
Staying up till 2AM to change my clocks is always a real bummer.
I’ve heard this is one of his tongue-in-cheek writings.
Well, OK, so much for "early to bed, early to rise". I too have often wondered about the apparent association between the sun and light in the sky, but as we all know, correlation is not causation.
Another thing I learned from this is how much the average family used in the way of candles back then, and from current experimentation courtesy of the power company, how little light they really give. How gratified Franklin would be to see us flick a switch on the wall and tell him, "Remember that key on the kite? You can read all night like this for the cost of less than a candle."
And have him reply, "Yes, and you can party and chase women, too..."
1. Tax windows with shutters;
2. Place guards be placed in wax and tallow shops of to prevent families buying more than one pound of candles per week;
3. Outlaw coaches in the street after sunset other than of physicians, surgeons, and midwives; and
4. At sunrise ring church bells or let cannons be fired to awake the sluggards who woujld sleep in daylight.
He forgot to add a sarc tag?
An old very wise Indian once said,”Only a white man would cut two inches off the bottom of a blanket, sew it to the top and tell everyone he had lengthened the blanket.”
I tried that once. Stayed up until 2 AM...set the clock back one hour, and at the end of that hour the clock read "2 AM" again so I had to repeat the whole sequence again and again as the clock always caught up with me.
When the sun came up and I was still doing this, I guessed I was doing it wrong. Now I make the adjustment just before bed-time and don't feel so guilty about watching the late,late movie since I was watching it an hour early.
To heck with that. I just assume save my hour for Monday morning, thank you.
Sure, changing to DST is a good idea. He persuades with reason and humor.
Notice he does not advocate changing back and forth.
That would be stupid...
I read it started with WW1 and was called War Time so the farmers had more daylight .... or something.
Personally Daylight savings time is a waste of effort. If the issue is that the summer allows for more light then fine - adjust the clocks 1/2 an hour and leave em there - either way if you need to be up or down when the sun is you’ll be up or down when the sun is - without concern as to what the clock says. Just a way to demonstrate that people can control others if you ask me.
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