The first half of the 17th century brought a breakthrough in the development of meteorological observations with the invention the first measuring instruments: a liquid thermometer and a mercury barometer. In Warsaw, a crucial figure spearheading this shift was Antoni Magier (1762-1837), a writer and chronicler, but primarily a physicist and meteorologist. He conducted systematic observations using devices he constructed himself. He published his daily readings of the “degrees of cold and heat” on his house on Piwna Street for the passers-by to see. In the following decades, Varsovians were able to read the temperature from thermometers hung in almost every pharmacy and public building in the city (such as the churches or the city hall).

Find out more about the exhibition ”The Cold Days Are Over”: https://muzeumwoli.muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/warsaw-under-construction-15-the-cold-days-are-over/

The WARSAW UNDER CONSTRUCTION Festival was established at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw in 2009. It addresses design issues in the broadest possible sense: from industrial design, applied graphics, through architecture and urban planning to social design.