Less than a month is missing at the change from legal hour to calendar hour: the night between Saturday 25 October and Sunday 26 October 2025, at 03:00, the clock hands that will be moved one hour back. But who invented the legal time and from when is it in force in Italy? The first to propose the idea would have been the American scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin while he was in Paris: the goal, also at the time, was to make the most of the love hours to reduce the waste of daylight. His idea, however, was initially discarded, to then be restored in 1916 during the First World War and enter into force in Italy in the 1960s.
Like every year, the transition to calendar hour will allow us to “earn” an hour of sleep more and will anticipate the time of dawn and sunset by 60 minutes, giving us an hour of light early in the morning, but removing one in the evening.
Who invented the legal time: Benjamin Franklin and William Willett
According to the historical reconstructions, the first to have proposed to move the clock hands to make the most of the sunlight was the American Benjamin Franklin, politician and scientist (inventor, among other things, of the lightning rod and bifocal lenses): during his stay in Paris in 1784 he published an article on Journal de Paris, in which in a joking way he ironized on the French habits to go out late at night and sleep until late day.
Precisely for this reason, he hypothesized the possible savings of candles if only had moved the hour back: his intuition, initially taken into consideration, was however forgotten until 1909, when the British entrepreneur William Willett even published printed brochures, in which he explained the waste of daytime light during the summer months and the consequent energy saving with the adoption of the so -called British Summer Time.
Despite the adhesion of prominent characters, including the writer Arthur Conan Doyle and the future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Willett’s proposal was initially opposed, and then resumed 7 years later during the First World War.
When the legal time was introduced in Italy
But, therefore, how long has it been in force on the legal time in Italy and who has decided to move the hands twice a year?
Also in our country, legal hours was introduced for the first time in 1916, when energy saving was indispensable due to the current world conflict. In the following years, however, his adoption was fluctuating, alternating years in which he was suppressed to others in which he was restored: with the creation of the Italian Social Republic in 1943, and Italy divided halfway between the Nazi-fascist government of Benito Mussolini and the Kingdom of Italy, even two different time zones were reached, given that in 1944 the Republic of Salò decided to adopt the legal time.
After about 20 years of uncertainty, in 1966 the law n.1144 decreed the official entry into force of the legal hour in Italy, with “the normal hour anticipated, in all respects, of sixty first minutes”. In the same way, in 1996 the change of the hour was adopted with a common calendar in the rest of the European Union.
Even today, however, the debate on legal and now sunny time is particularly heated, to the point that until a few years ago the European Parliament has begun to discuss a possible abolition of alternation. In any case, the change of hour for the summer months has several advantages and disadvantages: between April and October 2025 it is estimated that 100 million euros will have been saved thanks to a consumption of 330 million kWh of less electricity, equal to about 160 thousand tons of CO2 In less than in the atmosphere (Terna data). On the other hand, however, there are some scientific studies have highlighted possible negative impacts on health and sleep.
