Today we look online to determine the weather. When I was little, I remember people had big thermometers hanging outside, or suctioned to the outside of, for example, the kitchen window. But when did people start doing that? Was there something they did before that to learn about the weather? (Did cities have thermometers in public places before homes had their own? anything like that?)
I discovered that oral thermometers were being promoted for self-diagnosis at home in the 1870s, but nothing about weather thermometers...