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Re: Origin of the old barometer story

I looked up the word janitor at:

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/mweb and the date of origin is 1629.

Lisa Gardner (age 9)

Main Entry: jan·i·tor
Pronunciation: 'ja-n&-t&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin, from janus arch, gate
Date: 1629
1 : DOORKEEPER
2 : one who keeps the premises of a building (as an apartment or
office) clean, tends the heating system, and makes minor repairs
- jan·i·to·ri·al /"ja-n&-'tOr-E-&l, -'tor-/ adjective


The story is probably more than 65 years old...Maybe even
back to the
days of
Torricelli (1609-1647).

By the way, Lisa... you wrote that the defendant knocked on the door
of the janitor and said that he would give the janitor a
lovely barometer
if
the janitor would tell him the height of his building.
The question
that I have
for you now is ...... "Who, or what, and how old, is a janitor?"

Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where we now have lots of building custodian engineers and
apartment house caretakers..... but janitors ? ? ? )