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British Summer Time Begins...
Don't forget! British Summer Time
officially starts 30th March 2008. Remember to put your
clocks
FORWARD one hour before you go to bed on the Saturday night...
British Summer Time begins officially on the last Sunday
in March at 0100, when we put the clocks forward one hour
to 0200. Summer Time ends officially at 0200 hours on the
last Sunday in October when clocks shall be put back to 0100
hours Greenwich Mean Time. As the clocks
go forward in the UK the hours of daylight increases, giving
us more time to spend outside.
British Summer Time 2007
British timekeeping has marked
the end of an era with the switch to summer time in the early
hours of the 25th March 2007.
The change at 0100 GMT was the last one to be signalled from
Rugby, in Warwickshire, which has been the source of the
time signal since 1927. From 31st March 2007, the long-wave
signal, used to keep the "pips" heard
on BBC radio services accurate, will start to be broadcast
from Anthorn, Cumbria.
Users of the signal, such as emergency services, banks and mobile phone networks, should not notice any change. The national time signal underpins many aspects of society. The newer transmittng mast, located on a Ministry of Defence site in Anthorn, on the west coast of Cumbria, will be easier to maintain than the older antenna in Rugby. It will start broadcasting the national time signal around the clock from midnight on 31st March 2007, one week after the switch to British Summer Time.
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DO
THE CLOCKS GO FORWARD OR BACK?
Every year in the Spring we adjust our clocks by one
hour to take advantage of the changing light conditions as the days
get longer thus giving farmers more daylight to work on their arable
land. The saddening thing about putting the clocks forward, we lose
an hour in bed. But on a brighter note, when the days are drawing
in, and it gets alot darker earlier in the day, with wet, cold and
frosty mornings, we gain an hour in bed to keep snug under the quilts
(by putting the clocks back in Autumn).
A simple analogy to remember which way the clocks
go, is to appreciate another word for Autumn is Fall (imagine the
leaves falling off the trees).
So once we know that, by remembering the following little phrase
SPRING Forward, FALL back. Hopefully
this will help to to know whether to put our clocks forward or back
British Summer Time - A background
The idea of British Summer Time was dreamed up in 1906 by William
Willett, a Surrey-born builder who believed it would be helpful
to maximise and standardise daylight hours. He believed people
woke up quicker and in better spirits when it was light, and suffer
relatively little as the nights drew in. Mr Willett also argued
it would save the country £2m a year in fuel costs. His
first idea, an advance of 80 minutes rather than an hour, brought
forward in four moves of 20 minutes each, was met with ridicule
and derision.
Many were determined to stick to Greenwich
Mean Time (GMT), which had been in existence for 25 years but
had only just been adopted nationally. Railways mounted some of
the toughest opposition to daylight saving, arguing time changes
and a deviation from GMT could lead to more accidents. Mr Willett
campaigned hard, and eventually the first Daylight Saving Bill was
introduced in 1908. It was thrown out, as were two further attempts
in 1909 and 1911. It finally became law in 1916, as a wartime measure
because of an acute coal shortage.
It then continued long after the war, and in 1925
it was made permanent by the British Summertime Act.
Did you know:
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is also known as Zulu Time. There are
25 integer World Time Zones from -12 through 0 (GMT) to +12. Each
one is 15° of Longitude as measured East and West from the Prime
Meridian of the World at Greenwich, England. Some countries have
adopted non-standard time zones, usually 30 minutes offset which
have a * designation.
Each Time Zone is measured relative to Greenwich, England. There
are both civilian designations which are typically three letter
abbreviations (e.g. BST) for most time zones. In addition there
are military designations. These use each letter of the alphabet
(except 'J') and are known by their phonetic equivalent. e.g. Greenwich
Mean Time (civilian) or Z = Zulu (military and aviation).
Thought: When a clock is hungry,
it goes back four seconds!
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