Blame (or thank) Franklin for daylight-saving time

Benjamin Franklin invented the Franklin stove, bifocals, the lightning rod and something else: daylight-saving time.

The man who coined the phrase "time is money" thought adding an hour of light in the evening would save on candles.

When the idea finally took hold in the 20th century it had its detractors, primarily farmers, who found themselves having to work very late — by the clock, not the sun — every day during the summer. What's more, the twice-yearly change upset routine.

"The farmers' only concern is consistency," said Booth Wallentine, CEO of the Utah Farm Bureau. "Dairy farmers in particular don't like it if you keep changing the animals' milking times."

Daylight-saving time came and went sporadically during the first half of the 20th century. In 1918, Congress voted it in as an energy conservation measure during World War I, but in 1919, largely at the insistence of, yes, farmers, it was repealed. During World War II Congress adopted another temporary shift to daylight-saving time — all year round.

The 1966 Uniform Time Act established daylight-saving time nationwide, requiring all states to switch to it unless they passed a law exempting themselves. Some have. Hawaii, with plenty of sun all year round, opted out. Arizona, stubbornly alone among its Western neighbors, did also.

Indiana, though, is surely the most complex. Most of the state is located in the eastern time zone and does not observe daylight-saving time — except five border counties that do. The western sliver of the state, located in the central time zone, observes daylight-saving time. Different parts of the state are always an hour apart, but which parts differ depends on the time of year.

In Utah there have been a few attempts over the years to eliminate daylight-saving time. Former Rep. Lowell Nelson, R-Highland, unsuccessfully attempted to legislate it away, and every so often a spate of letters to newspaper editors advocate abolishing it.

"It's high time Utahns re-evaluate the necessity of this semiannual menace," complained one writer.

Except for a temporary extension during the 1970s energy crisis, daylight-saving time remained unchanged until 1987, when the last Sunday in April date changed to the first Sunday in April (the last Sunday in October date stayed the same).