Rick
03-25-2002, 10:12 AM
Did you know in the heyday of the sailing ship, every ship
had to have cannons for protection. Cannons of the times
required round iron cannon balls. The master wanted to store
the cannonballs in such a manner that they could be of instant
use when needed yet not roll around the gun deck.
The solution was to stack them in a square-based pyramid next
to the cannon. The top level of the stack had one ball, the
next level down had four, the next had nine, the next had 16,
and so on. Four levels would provide a stack of 30 cannonballs.
The only real problem was how to keep the bottom level from
sliding out from under the weight of the higher levels. To do
this they devised a small plate ("monkey") with one rounded
indentation for each cannonball in the bottom layer. When iron
was used for this plate ("monkey") the cannonballs would rust
to the plate.
As a result these plates were made of brass to prevent this
problem - thus the "brass monkey". As the temperature falls
brass contracts in size faster than iron. As it got cold on
the gun decks the indentations in the brass monkey would get
smaller than the iron cannonballs they were holding. If the
temperature got cold enough, the bottom layer would pop out
of the indentations spilling the entire pyramid over the deck.
Thus it was quite literally: "Cold enough to freeze the balls
off a brass monkey."
had to have cannons for protection. Cannons of the times
required round iron cannon balls. The master wanted to store
the cannonballs in such a manner that they could be of instant
use when needed yet not roll around the gun deck.
The solution was to stack them in a square-based pyramid next
to the cannon. The top level of the stack had one ball, the
next level down had four, the next had nine, the next had 16,
and so on. Four levels would provide a stack of 30 cannonballs.
The only real problem was how to keep the bottom level from
sliding out from under the weight of the higher levels. To do
this they devised a small plate ("monkey") with one rounded
indentation for each cannonball in the bottom layer. When iron
was used for this plate ("monkey") the cannonballs would rust
to the plate.
As a result these plates were made of brass to prevent this
problem - thus the "brass monkey". As the temperature falls
brass contracts in size faster than iron. As it got cold on
the gun decks the indentations in the brass monkey would get
smaller than the iron cannonballs they were holding. If the
temperature got cold enough, the bottom layer would pop out
of the indentations spilling the entire pyramid over the deck.
Thus it was quite literally: "Cold enough to freeze the balls
off a brass monkey."