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Historical knowledge
In the old days, it was necessary to keep a good supply of canon balls
near the cannon on war ships - but preventing them from rolling about
the deck posed a 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 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 it was a vulgar expression, didn't you?
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[Contributed by Peter]
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