Cold as a brass ...

Historical knowledge.....

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried Iron cannons. Those
cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But
how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square based
pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on sixteen.

Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There
was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others.
The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But if this plate was
made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it.

The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." Few landlubbers realize that brass
contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature
dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come
right off the monkey.

Thus, it was quite literally: "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" (And all this
time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you?)

It's 40 degrees with sunshine here in NY. I'm off to 'jog' and work on my tan. We are supposed to
get inches of rain this saturday to go with the two feet of snow already on the ground. Time to
build my ark. Let's see, two Heinekens, two Sam Adams, two blonds.....such decisions.

--
Caveat Lector "the further you go outside, the further you go inside" - B. McKibben Doug Freese
dfreese@hvc.rr.com

>two blonds.

Unfortunately, knowing your preferences, they'll both be blond men.

Bill R.
==========>
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Doug Freese wrote:
>
> Historical knowledge.....

were you there?

> Thus, it was quite literally: "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" (And all this
> time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you?)

Thanks for sharing. I needed some useful knowledge this morning to perk up a rather
lackluster week

>
> It's 40 degrees with sunshine here in NY. I'm off to 'jog' and work on my tan. We are supposed to
> get inches of rain this saturday to go with the two feet of snow already on the ground.

uh oh. You have my sincerest sympathies. That's what we were like a couple weeks ago, except we
didn't have the 2 ft of snow contributing. We're at least normal temperatures now. We still don't
have snow locally in the lower elevations, but all the races (runners to Nome start Sunday; dogs
March 1) have been moved north and there's good snow there. In fact, tv coverage of Yukon Quest
(sled dogs from Whitehorse to Fairbanks, but more interior than Iditarod routes) looks like they've
got really nice snow.

>Time to build my ark. Let's see, two Heinekens, two Sam Adams, two blonds.....such decisions.

I'm assuming the blonds run since you need some running partners for laps on the deck - or that will
be one of your other pairs I hope the ark is big enough that you don't get dizzy with your laps.
Hmm, maybe you could route a ramp over the cabin so you could get some hills. Just trying to be
helpful

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

I've heard that bit of trivia too. Anytime I relate it to others I usually get at least one person
who doesn't believe it. Oh well. By the way. Do the cannonballs roll off because the indentations
shrink or become closer together on the plate?

Doug Freese wrote:
> Historical knowledge.....

> The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." Few landlubbers realize that
> brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the
> temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon
> balls would come right off the monkey.
>
> Thus, it was quite literally: "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" (And all this
> time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you?)

--
Random number generation is too vital a task to be left to chance.

Why is the plate called a monkey?