The April Fool Archive

Daylight Savings Contest    (April Fool's Day - 1984)

The Eldorado Daily Journal, an Illinois paper, announced a contest to see who could save the most daylight for daylight savings time. The rules of the contest were simple: beginning with the first day of daylight savings time, contestants would be required to save daylight. Whoever succeeded in saving the most daylight would win. Only pure daylight would be allowed—no dawn or twilight light, though light from cloudy days would be allowed. Moonlight was strictly forbidden. Light could be stored in any container. The contest received a huge, nationwide response. The paper's editor was interviewed by correspondents from CBS and NBC and was featured in papers throughout the country.
April Fool's Day Time and Date Hoaxes Notable April Fool's Day Hoaxes by Newspapers American April Fool's Day Hoaxes April Fool's Day, 1984

More content from the Hoax Museum:

Use your left ear to detect lies

Jernegan's Gold Accumulator Scam, 1898

Mencken's fake history of the bathtub, 1917

Comments

Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time.
Posted by Chris in Edmonton  on  Sun Apr 03, 2005  at  12:02 PM
I won that contest. Really helps when you have some spools of regenerative fiberoptic cable lying around!
Posted by Vic Sub  on  Sat Oct 08, 2005  at  10:47 AM
In Germany, there is an old story about the stupid inhabitants of a town who forgot to build their town hall with windows, so they took all kinds of containers and carried the daylight into the town hall. This story reminded me of that.
Posted by Autrian  on  Tue Nov 21, 2006  at  07:22 AM
very, very cool! 😊 I wish I could save some of that weekday daylight that I waste sitting under fluorescents, and let it out on weekends. More time for bass! Yahoo! 😊
Posted by stringbassgirl  on  Mon Apr 02, 2007  at  04:50 PM
The only way I can think of is with solar cells maybe? Awesome prank anyway :lol:
Posted by Emelia  on  Wed Jan 30, 2008  at  03:32 AM
I can Almost Picture it now... Retards catching Fireflies in jars thinking they are actually the last bits of daylight fleeing night.

Some other Neg-IQ with a vast ellaborate mirror system aimed into a cauldron or some such... V_V It never seems to amaze me what humans are willing to fall for, or even just misinterpret to the point of creating retardation out of possible sense... V_V
Posted by The Seventh Sword, Murakumo Tsurugi, The Final Swo  on  Tue Apr 01, 2008  at  12:28 PM
I'm devising a Light Thermos to capture daylight. You unstopper it in the morning and leave it open all day. At sunest, you screw in the top. In the evening, just crack open the Thermos to allow out the sunlight.

CAUTION: If you accidently drop the Thermos, it will shatter, leaving daylight scattered about. Please sweep up the light while wearing sunglasses and SPF-30 sunblock.
Posted by SkipTracer  on  Thu Apr 03, 2008  at  11:26 AM