How Daylight Saving Time Got Started

The idea behind Daylight Saving Time is simple. Setting clocks one hour ahead adds one hour of daylight to the end of the day, when more people are awake. And that reduces the amount of energy needed to power lights and appliances. Easy, right? Well, Ben Franklin thought so.

Franklin first suggested maximizing daylight hours--and so conserving candles--in a whimsical 1784 letter to the editor of the Journal de Paris. Big Ben didn't hit on any clock tricks, though. His proposal, to be taken as seriously (or as lightly) as you want, involved taxing window shutters, restricting nighttime traffic, and ringing church bells and firing cannons at dawn to encourage early rising.

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