Historical fact (I hope its not too English?)
It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannon
on
war ships. But how to
prevent them from rolling about the deck was the problem. The best
storage
method devised was to stack them as 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 with 16 round indentations, called a Monkey. But if this
plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The
solution to the rusting problem was to make Brass Monkeys.
Few landlubbers realise that brass contracts (shrinks) 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 a vulgar expression,
didn't you?
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