The History of Daylight Savings Time

As a financial expert, could you estimate the cost savings in the U.S. alone through the country’s use of daylight savings time (DST)? Benjamin Franklin’s estimates in 1784 yielded about $200 million in savings in today’s dollars if people lived their days by making the best use of daylight around the year. David Prerau is the leading expert on daylight savings time, and his book, Seize the Daylight, explores the rich history of DST.

Interview Highlights

• David’s interest in DST
• Benjamin Franklin’s eureka moment and financial math
• The 20-plus years of research for the book
• The three forms of artificial time: DST, Greenwich mean time, and time zones
• The first country that introduced DST borrowed the idea from another
• The life and impact of William Willett
• The ultimate spread of DST during WWI
• The introduction of time zones in the 1880s
• The history and purpose of mean time
• Standardization of DST and Iowa’s 23 different starting and ending dates of DST
• The reason two states don’t recognize DST

Benjamin Franklin conceived of it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle endorsed it. Winston Churchill campaigned for it. Kaiser Wilhelm first employed it. Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt went to war with it, and, more recently, the United States fought an energy crisis with it.

Prerau, David. Seize the Daylight

Books Mentioned

1. A God Against the Gods: An Epic Novel of Ancient Egypt by Allen Drury
2. The Secret in Their Eyes: A Novel by Eduardo Sacheri
3. Almost a Revolution: The Story of a Chinese Student’s Journey from Boyhood to Leadership in Tiananmen Square by Tong Shen

Important Links

• David’s website
• Amazon author page
• PBS post – one of our favorite pieces on the history of DST

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