Insect hunter: The creepy-crawly origins of daylight savings

In the early 1880s, an adolescent George Hudson was already enamoured by insects. At the age of 13, the budding amateur naturalist wrote his first manuscript – based on insects he collected and drew in meticulous detail. By the time of his death in 1946, he had penned and illustrated seven books, and amassed one of the largest collections of insect specimens in New Zealand. 

But this prolific commitment to invertebrates – especially moths and butterflies – was not without its obstacles. For as the bug-loving teenager entered the workforce as a postal clerk, he came up against a problem: there were more insects out there than he had available daylight hours in which to hunt them. 

Not one to let his insect-studying instincts be curtailed, however, Hudson proposed a solution: shift the clocks back two hours during summer months – a concept which foreshadows the modern system of daylight saving time.

Such a shift, he argued in front of the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1895 and 1989, would make use of early morning daylight for work and open up "a long period of daylight leisure" in the evening "for cricket, gardening, cycling or any other outdoor pursuit desired". As well as saving on the use of artificial light, the switch would especially benefit "the numerous classes who are obliged to work indoors all day, and who, under existing arrangements, get a minimum of fresh air and sunshine", he suggested.

At first, his proposition was met with ridicule and, although it gained ground and support in the subsequent years, it didn't progress much further at the time. But he was also not the only person of his era making such a case.

In the UK, the builder William Willet noticed that during his early morning horse-ride to work, the shutters remained drawn in workers' cottages. By moving back summertime hours, he, like Hudson, reasoned that people could start their day earlier and have more time for leisure after work.