# Who invented daylight saving time?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 4, 2000, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941 "2000-09-04T03:38:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@llama\_a\_la\_lama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/llama_a_la_lama)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2000, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/1 "2000-09-04T03:38:58Z")
I know Ben Franklin wrote a treatise on the topic, and of course he had the Early to Bed, Early to Rise motto, along with a few scolding lines about “burning the candle at both ends of the day”.
But he probably wasn’t first was he?
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### Author:  [@Kipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kipper)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2000, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/2 "2000-09-04T03:46:14Z")
In the UK daylight saving was first used during WWI as an economy mesure. The reason being that people would be able to work longer hours.
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### Author:  [@NickyLarson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NickyLarson)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2000, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/3 "2000-09-04T03:47:40Z")
He wrote the treatise. Ergo, he invented it.
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### Author:  [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2000, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/4 "2000-09-04T03:50:29Z")
I’ve always read that he invented it. Ol’ Ben invented/wrote alot of things. He’s my favorite American hero!!!
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2000, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/5 "2000-09-04T04:43:38Z")
It’s a middle class fix. You’ve got longer to sit out on the lawn and grill.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2000, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/6 "2000-09-04T05:43:24Z")
Just remember, early to rise, early to bed makes a man groggy, grumpy, and dead.
I _think_ I made that one up myself, feel free to quote it.
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### Author:  [@tbea925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tbea925)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2000, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/7 "2000-09-04T18:46:09Z")
Remember, it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2000, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/8 "2000-09-04T18:48:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by tbea925 \*
> \*\*Remember, it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird. \*\*
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2000, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/9 "2000-09-05T02:32:02Z")
In his essay titled “Turkey versus Eagle, McCauley is my Beagle” (which I read a few years ago), Ben Franklin said (IIRC) that it would make more sense for people to rise with the sun regardless of the time on the clock, but that it’s easier to change a clock than to change human behavior. Franklin’s work did not directly lead to any reforms.
William Willet of England was probably the most ardent and influential supporter of the notion. The British Parliament considered and rejected Daylight Savings several times beginning in 1908. It finally passed in 1916, a year after Willet’s death. But Britain was not the first country to institute it: Germany was in 1915.
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2000, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/10 "2000-09-05T03:20:21Z")
Early to bed, early to rise… and you’ll never meet any interesting people!
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### Author:  [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2000, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-daylight-saving-time/31941/11 "2000-09-05T12:57:40Z")
Daylight savings time was invented by a native American, who, in order to make his blanket one foot longer, cut one foot from one end and sewed it onto the other end.
Ben Franklin just took the credit.