--- title: Daylight Saving Time: When Springing Forward Was Illegal description: You could be fined $100 or ten days in prison for showing the wrong time canonical: https://time.com/3717487/daylight-saving-time-1923/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-06T17:00:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:03:25.243Z article:section: History og:title: Daylight Saving Time: When Springing Forward Was Illegal og:description: You could be fined $100 or ten days in prison for 'springing forward' og:url: https://time.com/3717487/daylight-saving-time-1923/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltece738c3f373ca52/6987805ce53abaa88f4d7b31/dst.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: DST protest og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Daylight Saving Time: When Springing Forward Was Illegal twitter:description: You could be fined $100 or ten days in prison for 'springing forward' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltece738c3f373ca52/6987805ce53abaa88f4d7b31/dst.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # When Daylight Saving Time Was Illegal > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=2904cd29-23cd-4361-a857-3c186c53da1e&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=2904cd29-23cd-4361-a857-3c186c53da1e&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Time Explains: Daylight Saving Time [Watch (HLS stream): Time Explains: Daylight Saving Time](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gMvVuTDE.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2013-10-30. A recent study shows that daylight saving actually accomplishes the opposite of its intended goal: saving energy._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 6, 2015 5:00 PM UTC  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 6, 2015 5:00 PM UTC When Daylight Saving Time begins this year on Mar. 8, Americans are likely to turn their clocks forward with a minimum of grumbling over the lost hour — at least compared to the objections that were raised when it was first implemented. The idea of moving the clock around in order to maximize the useful hours of sunlight, thus saving the fuel otherwise needed for lights, was originally a wartime idea. Individual localities might choose to move forward or back, but the end of World War I meant the end of federal daylight saving. The option to decide on a case-by-case basis led cities and states across the country to take up proverbial arms — or, rather, clock hands — for or against. The battle over the clocks raged for decades. People who liked having sunlight early in the day raged against those who privileged daylight in the evening. But few places had it as bad as Connecticut did in 1923, as TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1923-04-07/page/6): --- > “” --- The law passed, forbidding the “willful display in any public building, street, avenue, or public highway of any time-measuring instrument or device, which is calculated or intended to furnish time to the general public, set or running so as to indicate any other than the standard time.” A state supreme court [upheld ](http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/buslj4&div=33&id=&page=)the law in 1924. But, clock-changers of Connecticut, fear not. Not every state observes daylight saving time today — but Connecticut does. ## Transcript Every spring, we turn our clocks an hour ahead. And in the fall, we turn them back. But why? Researchers and government officials are reevaluating the need for Daylight Savings Time. And here's what you need to know. The practice of Daylight Savings actually originates at the beginning of civilization. People adjusted their daily schedules depending on the sun which meant that the workday varied in length. Fast- forward to 1784 when Benjamin Franklin published an essay in France suggesting that rising earlier could help people save money on candles. More than 100 years later, George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand astronomer, suggested a two- hour daylight saving shift. Then, again, in 1907, British builder, William Willett proposed advancing clocks by 80 minutes in four incremental steps. But Daylight Savings Time wasn't formally implemented until World War I when Germany attempted to drive down the demand for electrical lighting to divert more coal to the war. Thirty- one other countries quickly followed with similar policies, seizing any opportunity to save money during the war. Daylight Savings was repealed during peacetime, but was brought back during World War II in the 1973 oil embargo. Since then, various laws have made Daylight Savings Time a standard practice across America. But states can opt out as Arizona, Hawaii, and other American territories have. Yet, despite all of Daylight Savings' promises to reduce energy consumption and save money, there's little proof that it works. In 2008, researchers released a study on statewide energy consumption before and after Indiana adopted Daylight Savings Time. The data shows that Daylight Savings actually led to a 1 percent overall rise in residential electricity and that's not even the worst of it. Another 2008 study shows that Daylight Savings affects sleeping patterns and may be linked to an increase in heart attacks. Currently, Daylight Savings is implemented worldwide in over 70 countries, but as the evidence starts to pile up against the practice, Daylight Savings may just become another footnote in history. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3717487/daylight-saving-time-1923/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3717487/daylight-saving-time-1923/"},"headline":"When Daylight Saving Time Was Illegal","datePublished":"2015-03-06T17:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T09:03:25.243Z","description":"You could be fined $100 or ten days in prison for 'springing forward'","url":"https://time.com/3717487/daylight-saving-time-1923/","keywords":["Bizarre","daylight saving time"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltece738c3f373ca52/6987805ce53abaa88f4d7b31/dst.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltece738c3f373ca52/6987805ce53abaa88f4d7b31/dst.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"DST protest","caption":"Children protest the daylight-savings time.","creditText":"New York Daily News Archive / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/bizarre/","name":"Bizarre"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3717487/daylight-saving-time-1923/","name":"When Daylight Saving Time Was Illegal"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Time Explains: Daylight Saving Time","description":"A recent study shows that daylight saving actually accomplishes the opposite of its intended goal: saving energy.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gMvVuTDE/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-10-30T23:42:38.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gMvVuTDE.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3717487/daylight-saving-time-1923/","duration":"PT2M26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3717487/daylight-saving-time-1923/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```