March 1, 2024

Daylight Savings Time

Next weekend on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at 2 a.m., we will once again "spring forward" the time on our clocks and begin another season of Daylight Savings Time (DST). Since 2007, DST has started on the second Sunday of March, and lasted until the first Sunday of November, when we "fall back" again to Standard Time. (In 2024, this occurs on Nov. 3.)

You might reasonably wonder as I did, "Where did this idea originate?"

Is Ben Franklin the Founding Father of DST?

Image of Benjamin Franklin in his marten fur charmed the French. Painting by John Trumbull (1756-1843). Located at Yale University

Many people lay the blame for their blurry eyes and lack of sleep each March, squarely at the feet of founding father Benjamin Franklin. From 1776 to 1785, Franklin served the fledgling United States as its first diplomat, Ambassador to France. It was during this time that, according to Alan Yuhas writing for the New York Times, Franklin "realized he was wasting his Parisian mornings by staying in bed."

A Paris Essay

In 1784, Franklin wrote the essay “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light” which appeared in the Journal de Paris, proposing the innovative concept which is the basis of Daylight Savings Time. In his essay Franklin suggested, among other things, that French officials shoot cannons at sunrise to jolt people out of bed, thus optimizing the amount of hours they spent awake when it’s light out, and thereby cutting down the amount of candles needed to light their homes.

“An immense sum! That the city of Paris might save every year by the economy of using sunshine instead of candles.”

Image of Benjamin Franklin’s 1784 essay on rising
with the sun appeared in the Journal de Paris.

According to the Franklin Institute website, the firing of cannons was only one of the suggestions that Franklin had for ensuring that "Parisians became early risers:

First. Let a tax be laid of a Louis [gold coin] per window, on every window that is provided with shutters to keep out the light of the sun.
Second … Let guards be placed in the shops of the wax and tallow chandlers, and no family be permitted to be supplied with more than one pound of candles per week.
Third. Let guards also be posted to stop all the coaches, etc. that would pass the streets after sunset, except those of physicians, surgeons, and midwives.
Fourth. Every morning, as soon as the sun rises, let all the bells in every church be set ringing; and if that is not sufficient? Let cannon be fired in every street, to wake the sluggards effectually, and make them open their eyes to see their true interest."

A London Observation

Some historians believe Franklin was simply joking when writing his satirical essay, but Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time writes that "...thrift was never a joke to Franklin. The idea of saving daylight had first occurred to him in London thirty years earlier..."(pg.8)

Franklin recalls in The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, “I observ’d there was not one shop open tho’ it had been Day-light & the Sun up above three Hours. The Inhabitants of London chusing voluntarily to live much by Candle Light, and sleep by Sunshine; and yet often complain a little absurdly, of the Duty on Candles and the high Price of Tallow.” (Downing pg. 8)

Whether joking or not, in his essay and autobiography, Franklin is expressing the core reasoning behind the idea of Daylight Savings Time. Basically adjusting the time when people are awake so that they can make more use of natural daylight. So it appears that we can, at least in part, "thank" Benjamin Franklin for our blurry eyes and lack of sleep this March 10th...although his idea was originally based on saving candles and not electricity!

Sources use for this Musings From Main:

Did Ben Franklin Invent Daylight Saving Time?, The Franklin Institute website retrieved March 1, 2024.
Downing, Michael, Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, Counterpoint, 2009.
Victor, Daniel, Daylight Saving Time: Why Does It Exist? (It’s Not for Farming) New York Times, March 11, 2016, retrieved March 1, 2024.
Yuhas, Alan, Why Do We Change the Clocks, Anyway? New York Times, February 21, 2024, retrieved March 1, 2024.

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