Do you think Howard Miller knew of the connection between Benjamin Franklin, William Willett, World War I (when Daylight Saving Time was first adopted by Germany as a means to save energy), and Daylight Savings Time, not to mention the later connection after Howard Miller had passed with Coldplay’s Chris Martin not only including a hidden reference to Daylight Saving Time, but doing so in the hit song titled Clocks.

Benjamin Franklin was a known lover and admirer of grandfather clocks, back then known as Longcase Clocks and Tall Case Clocks.

In reading an article in the Miami Herald, we just learned for the first time about a connection between the invention and introduction of Daylight Savings Time, and a link with Coldplay’s Chris Martin’s great-great-grandfather who first introduced Daylight Savings Time idea to England in 1907 in an essay when William Willett introduced “British Summer Time,” also known as Daylight Saving Time, National Geographic reported. Like Benjamin Franklin’s idea, William Willett’s was focused on adding more morning hours during daylight.

It was America’s Founding Father Benjamin Franklin who first developed the concept of Daylight Savings Time, in an Essay titled  “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light”.  According to a report in LiveScience, Franklin suggested people in the late 1700s would save money on candle wax if they get up at a time with more natural light.  This forward-thinking and prescient idea did not gain traction again until 1907, when William Willett essay  “British Summer Time” was published.  In the years that followed, British Summer Time eventually morphed into Daylight Saving Time, was published, according to a report in National Geographic.

It was then first implemented in Germany during World War I, which began in 1914, as a way to conserve energy by using less coal.  Eventually, England, the U.S. and several other countries fighting the Germans implemented Daylight Saving Time.

William Willett was actually the great-great-grandfather of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin’s, according to a report by BBC.  In Coldplay’s hit song “Clocks,” there’s a hidden reference in the opening lyrics about Daylight Saving Time, with the words “the lights go out and I can’t be saved.”

In fact, it’s the very first opening verse in Coldplay’s Clocks lyrics, which are as follows:

The lights go out and I can’t be saved

Tides that I tried to swim against

Have brought me down upon my knees

Oh I beg, I beg and plead, singing

Daylight Savings Time has been met with mixed popularity in the USA and around the globe in more recent years. We will address that in another post.

Benjamin Franklin – Father of Daylight Savings Time