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Bill Bryson: The secret life of your home
Ever wondered why forks have four prongs? Or why we choose salt and pepper over other spices? For his new book, Bill Bryson took a trip around his own house to find out why we live the way we do.
Fans of natural beauty maybe particularly interested in the chapter on the bedroom…
If you are dying or unwell, exhausted, sexually dysfunctional, racked with anxiety, too depressed to face the world, the bedroom is the place where you are most likely to be found so it should not be surprising that beds became a source of disquiet. Up to 40 per cent of deaths, one doctor estimated, arose from chronic exposure to unwholesome air while sleeping.
Another medical 'authority' grimly explained: 'The air which surrounds the body under the bed clothing is exceedingly impure, being impregnated with the poisonous substances which have escaped through the skin.'
As well as being dangerous, beds were hard work. Turning and plumping mattresses was a regular chore - and a heavy one: a typical feather bed contained 20kg of feathers.
A plumped feather bed may have looked divine, but occupants quickly found themselves sinking into a hard, airless fissure between billowy hills. Support was on a lattice of ropes, which could be tightened with a key when they began to sag (hence the expression 'sleep tight') but in no degree of tension did they offer much comfort.
Spring mattresses were invented in 1865, but didn't work reliably at first because the coils would sometimes turn, confronting the occupant with the very real danger of being punctured by his own bed.
For much of history, a bed was, for most homeowners, the most valuable thing they owned. In William Shakespeare's day, for instance, a decent canopied bed cost £5, half the annual salary of a typical schoolmaster.
Posted by Sarah Smith
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