Betting you didn't know this!

[SmokeyWren]

Except for Roofie, who knows everything.

This was passed on to me by my cousin, who lives on the coast with salty sea air, and wastes a lot more time surfing the internet than I do.

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. However, 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 or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a 'Monkey' with 16 round indentations.

However, if this plate were made of iron, then in the salty, humid sea air 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 cannonballs would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.'

(All this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you.)

[fordsforever73]

Who would'a thunk!

[AK_Gandy]

Originally Posted by fordsforever73

Who would'a thunk!

Not me.

snopes.com: Brass Monkeys

Some people are so gullible.

[bilbo]

the series of British Napoleonic Era novels by Patrick O'Brian, the finest historical novelist that ever took pen to hand.
A whole world of naval knowledge centered around the actions and world of Captain Jack Aubry and Dr Stephen Maturin.
21 in the series; I have 18.

[klhansen]

Originally Posted by SmokeyWren

However, if this plate were made of iron, then in the salty, humid sea air the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make 'Brass Monkeys.'

A hole in that theory would be that the contact between brass and iron would make the iron cannonballs rust much more quickly than they would if the "Monkey" were of iron. And a rusty cannonball wouldn't be something that a good gunner would want to put down the bore of his gun.

Originally Posted by SmokeyWren

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 cannonballs would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.'

The difference in coefficient of thermal expansion between brass and iron isn't that far off that a reasonably sized indentation in the brass would shrink enough for the cannonballs to come out. To be effective in holding the balls in place in the first place, the depressions would have to be fairly large (deep), and while a drop in temperature might be enough to make them slightly smaller, it wouldn't be enough to make the balls fall off the plate.

Consider that the the coefficient of linear expansion for brass is about 10.4 x 10^-6 inches / inch degree F, that would mean (in rough terms) that if the depression were 2" diameter at 50F and the temperature dropped to 0F, the diameter would reduce by about 0.001 inches. At the same time, the cannonball resting in the same depression , having a coefficient of about 6 x10^-6 in/in F, would reduce in diameter at the rim of the hole by about half the amount of the brass or 1/2 thousandth of an inch. Hardly enough to for the ball to come out.

As they say on Mythbusters - "BUSTED".

Sorry, Smokey

[Kanman]

Smokey you familiar with the "Stack High In Transit" acronym?

[94_turbo]

smokey--knew it probably three years already--read it someplace--