Question from Corra S.:
Who should I thank for the inconvenience of changing my clocks back an hour every fall?
Benjamin Franklin is often wrongly credited as the inventor of Daylight Savings Time. In a satirical essay “Turkey versus Eagle, McCauley is my Beagle.” Franklin suggested that people get up earlier in the summer to take advantage of the sunlight. He did not mention changing the clocks.
Modern daylight savings time was first proposed by a New Zealander named George Vernon Hudson. His shift-work gave him time to collect insects and taught him about the value of after-work daylight hours. In 1895, he wrote a paper presenting a two-hour daylight saving shift. Many people were interested in his idea and he wrote another paper on the subject in 1898.
So when you have to change all of your clocks, you can thank George Vernon Hudson.