In the 1940s, when frost formed on the insides of bedroom windows I never, as a boy, had to get into a cold bed (Letters, passim). My father's homemade bedwarmers, made out of sheets of aluminium, blocks of wood, lightbulb holders, lengths of flex and screws of various sizes, ensured a cosy start to a good night's sleep. No thermostat meant these "tin boxes" had to be checked from time to time to ensure the sheets did not singe.
Bob Young
Brighton
• Animal power is often underrated: a brace of cats can pre-warm a duvet in around half an hour. Perhaps this is the origin of the dog seen warming the feet of reclining figures on tombs? A female effigy in Bristol appears to have a small dog strapped to each leg, the heads emerging from her long skirt.
Piers Rawson
Piddletrenthide, Dorset
• Whippets are all well and good as bed warmers (Letters, 17 February) but I've always found a ferret wrapped in a flat cap more effective, especially up north.
Gabriel Brodetsky
Beckley, Oxfordshire
• Heating the bed is not always a good thing as bed bugs like the warmth and go ape. I get in to a cold bed, give out a loud roar, shiver for a while and things generally heat up. It makes a man/woman out of me – like taking cold showers. Rather that than be eaten alive.
Jacqueline Cotter
Manchester
• A mineral water bottle filled with hot water makes an excellent hot water bottle and stays warm all night. The water can then be used for washing the breakfast dishes the next morning.
Ulrika Meller
Shoscombe, Somerset
• As a teenage "exchange" visitor to a French village in the 1950s, one night I was given a well-corked wine bottle filled with hot water wrapped in a towel.
Marion Bolton
Middlesbrough
• It seemed unlikely the contents of a hot water bottle, left overnight, would make a satisfactory cup of tea in the morning (Letters, 12 February). But the sense of economy appeals, and I suspended disbelief when I saw Albert Steptoe in the BBC's Steptoe and Son do exactly that.
Peter Addison
Shepton Mallet, Somerset
• Did Disraeli put a tea bag into the bottle before going to bed, thereby inventing the Teasmaid?
Rhian Peters
Kendal, Cumbria
• Just a cautionary word to those heating their beds with electric bulbs, however well shielded: make sure you don't fall asleep in your chair while the heater goes on getting hotter. 27 years ago, my mother had a commercial bedwarmer which consisted of a bulb inside a tin protector/diffuser shaped like a partially flattened sphere. One night, the bed caught fire. My mother died in the blaze. Not good.
Gareth Jones
Great Gaddesden, Hertfordshire
• When I was a child, our beds were efficiently warmed and aired using an electric bedwarmer made by Belling. It consisted of a circular metal structure, about 18in in diameter, and containing a lightbulb. The warmer had to be stood in an upright position in the bed – lying it flat was considered too dangerous as the mattress might get too hot. My 85-year-old father still has several of these bedwarmers in use.
Gillian Flynn
Sale, Cheshire
• My 91-year-old mother was very disappointed when her bedwarmer stopped working a few months ago. It was a round pink-painted metal container (like two woks), with a 40-watt light bulb inside. She had used it for years and thought the world of it. I was less enthusiastic, when asked if we could repair it, to find bare wires inside. I think it started life around 1950, or possibly before, bought for my ailing great grandmother. My mother, now the great-grandmother, has just acquired one of the new generation plug-in electric hot-water bottles, and admits it is a marvel, keeping her and the bed warm from bedtime until morning. Whether it will last 60 years is another matter.
Sue Treagus
Manchester