19 May 2009
A Wardrobe Thermometer.
Grimm speaks of a gentleman, J. J. de Mairan, whose old valet-de-chambre had established a sort of coneordance between the state of the thermometer and his master’s dress; and when M. de Mairan asked him in the morning, “How is the thermometer!” he answered, “at ratteen” or “at velvet, ” or “at fur,” according to the degree of cold. In one of the early numbers of Punch may be found a plan of a thermometer construeted on this principle.
