Brass Monkey Trivia Options

[GriffGirl]

It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannon on old 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 asquare 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, for reasons unknown, 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 them of brass - hence, 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 just a vulgar expression, didn't you?

[RickJamesBish]

History is interesting...

Sort of like the origins of saying "bless you" after someone sneezes. It was always thought that when you sneezed, you'd be giving your soul a split-second chance to escape if you shot it out of your mouth. But it went back in if someone around them blessed the person.

This post has been edited by RickJamesBish: Nov 4, 2008 - 6:45 PM

[GriffGirl]

History is interesting...

Sort of like the origins of saying "bless you" after someone sneezes. It was always thought that when you sneezed, you'd be giving your soul a split-second chance to escape if you shot it out of your mouth. But it went back in if someone around them blessed the person.

I've read differently - it was my understanding that "bless you" originated during the plague and that the sneezing was a sign of illness/plague

why you coy little minx!...happy belated? b'day. sorry for the 'jacking. everyone back to work, nothing to see here...

Oh. my. god. I just read that. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!! ROFL


No, seriously. I'm sitting at work LOLing. It's actually quite embarrassing.