“Well he wrote those very words in his autobiography. So it’s not a myth.”
The purpose of Daylight Savings Time is to be more economical with fuel (whatever that fuel is), which is why the United States instituted it during the oil crisis in the early 70’s.
In his time, Franklin did the math on fuel consumption. It was not written as a joke. His whole life was spent in coming up with better ways of doing things, including the Franklin Stove, where heat would be pushed into the house, instead of up the chimney, again saving fuel (wood).
“183 nights between 20 March and 20 September times 7 hours per night of candle usage equals 1,281 hours for a half year of candle usage. Multiplying by 100,000 families gives 128,100,000 hours by candlelight. Each candle requires half a pound of tallow and wax, thus a total of 64,050,000 pounds. At a price of thirty sols per pounds of tallow and wax (two hundred sols make one livre tournois), the total sum comes to 96,075,000 livre tournois. An immense sum, that the city of Paris might save every year.”