All out of joint
A few days later I checked again, this time with a colleague, to make sure that the clocks still told different times. They did. (There was three-quarters of an hour differ- ence between two.) But the matter was worse than I had thought. There were also baro- meters, and thermometer-hygrometers of the same design as the clocks. We looked, and discovered that according to some the glass was falling and to others it was rising; and each thermometer in the shop window registered a different temperature; and the
Don't tell me, you've been at the House of COMMOI1S all night.
humidity within did not seem to be constant, either.
Then, finally, my colleague discovered the final anachronism. These clocks and other devices (all called Taylor Mariner, and pre- sumably destined for use on boats, where accuracy, I'd have thought, counted for more than looks) could be bought separately or in pairs. A clock cost £1830. a barometer cost £7.25. One might have thought the two together would therefore have cost £25.75, or somewhat less. Not a bit of it. The two together were priced by Heal's at £27.85.
All in all, an amazing display of British designing and pricing.
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