By Annabeth Miller,
ShowMe Times Editor

A true sign that spring is at hand this weekend - the arrival of Daylight Saving Time.

Missouri and much of the rest of the nation will switch to "summer time" this Saturday night by resetting clocks before going to bed. Clocks should be set ahead one hour – “spring forward” - Saturday night. It is encouraged to set clocks before retiring Saturday, so families won't be late for church services the next morning!

The official start time for Daylight Savings Time is 2 a.m. Sunday, local time.Sure, it means a short night, but that hour of lost sleep will return with standard time in the fall!

’Time’ For Smoke Alarms

For Dexter Fire Chief Al Banken, the switch to Daylight Savings Time also is the time to check smoke alarms.
“This weekend when you set your clock back for Daylight Savings Time, people should check out their smoke detectors,” Banken said. “Change the battery and make sure it is clean.”

Banken is adamant that every home must have a smoke detector.

“We provide smoke detectors for people who cannot afford to buy them,” Banken said. He explained the Dexter Fire Department receives donations from local groups that enables to department to purchase smoke detectors to give to those who need them.

“I cannot believe that people do not have smoke detectors,” he said. “It’s a definite fact that smoke detectors lives. They have saved lives in Dexter.”

Banken said smoke detectors are credited with helping a local man during a recent home fire on West St. Francis Street. The fire chief said the gentleman living in the home indicated smoke detectors plus the “popping and crackling” of the fire awakened him from sleep and he was able to exit the burning home unharmed.

“Smoke detectors are guarding us when we are asleep,” he stressed. “They never sleep.”

Banken said it takes just a small amount of smoke to set off a detector – if the smoke detector is clean. He said dust and cobwebs can reduce a detector’s effectiveness.

Above all, Banken said the battery from a smoke alarm should not be pulled without being replaced. A smoke alarm should be operational at all times.

’Spring Forward’

For most Americans, Daylight Saving Time 2011 starts aSunday, when most states spring forward an hour. Time will fall back to standard time again on Sunday, November 6, 2011, when Daylight Saving Time ends.

The federal government doesn't require U.S. states or territories to observe Daylight Savings, which is why residents of Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Marianas Islands won't need to change their clocks this weekend.

Ben Franklin — of "early to bed and early to rise" fame — was apparently the first person to suggest the concept of daylight savings, according to computer scientist David Prerau, author of the book Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time.

While serving as U.S. ambassador to France in Paris, Franklin wrote of being awakened at 6 a.m. and realizing, to his surprise, that the sun would rise far earlier than he usually did. Imagine the resources that might be saved if he and others rose before noon and burned less midnight oil, Franklin, tongue half in cheek, wrote to a newspaper.

"Franklin seriously realized it would be beneficial to make better use of daylight but he didn't really know how to implement it," Prerau said.

Since the end of World War II, though, daylight saving time has always been optional for U.S. states. But its beginning and end have shifted — and occasionally disappeared.

During the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo, the U.S. once again extended daylight saving time through the winter, resulting in a one percent decrease in the country's electrical load, according to federal studies cited by Prerau.

Thirty years later the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was enacted, mandating a controversial monthlong extension of daylight saving time, starting in 2007.

Photo above Dexter Fire Chief Al Banken with a pair of smoke detectors. Chief Banken encourages people to check smoke detectors this weekend to ensure the detectors are working properly. The Dexter Fire Department has smoke detectors available for individuals who do not have a fire detector in their home and cannot afford to purchase one.