A Cold and Frosty Morning

North in reply to Jaybird says:

We forget, often, how astronomically standards of cleanliness have changed as time has progressed. Tobacco was once favored because, among other reasons, it gave a people and possessions a distinctively smoky smell. In modern standards we interpret that cigarette smell as a stench but in past standards, prior to easy frequent bathing, washing and the lack of availability of copious perfume and deodorant products, that tobacco smell was considered clean and benign compared to the body odor it likely covered up.
So, in addition to Michael’s point that covering the container limited evaporation from warmer water into what would have been extremely bone dry air, a lid also prevented an assortment of ‘stuff’ from settling onto the water. Covering containers of fluid is always a good idea, even now, but back then doing so often made the difference between having a bowl of clean water and a bowl with a coating of ‘something’ on the surface.Report