Fun & Interesting Facts
A/C "Ton"
A "ton of refrigeration" is defined as the cooling power of one ton (2000 lbs) of ice melting in a 24-hour period. Residential central air systems are usually from 1 to 5 tons in capacity.
Gauge
It's easy to be confused when you're told that a 10 guage wire is bigger than a 12 gauge. It may help to remember that the original measurement was based on how many strands of wire would fill an inch. While this is no longer true it does help make sense of the term.
When floors were dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors which would get slippery in the winter when wet. They spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on they kept adding more thresh until, when they opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed at the entryway to keep the thresh in, hence the term "threshold."
Bed Posts and Canopies
Houses had thatched roofs, thick straw, piled high with no wood underneath. It was a natural place for mice, rats and bugs. This posed a problem if you didn't want things, especially living things, falling on the person sleeping in bed. They found that if they made beds with big posts and hung a sheet over the top, it addressed that problem. Hence those beautiful big four poster beds with canopies.
Sleep Tight ... Bed Bugs
Beds consisted of a frames with ropes strung from side to side on which a "mattress" was supported. The ropes were twisted with a wooden key to tighten them to better support the big mattress. Hence the phrase "Sleep tight."
"Mattresses" were often made of leaves and small brush, which could hold bugs, fleas and ticks.
Thus the term "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite"...
Baths were taken in a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They mostly ate vegetables and didn't get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight, and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had things in it that had been in there for a month. Hence the rhyme: "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
