[Grovenet] Fwd: Did you know

[Katie Allnutt]

Aw darn Bob.  I thought it was cute so I forwarded it to people already.

Katie
Who wouldn't want a chance to talk about being so cold it could  
freeze the 'b..s' off a brass monkey after what we went through a few  
weeks ago. At least it was a colorful description of the conditions  
if not exactly accurate.


On Jan 12, 2009, at 2:06 PM, Bob Browning wrote:

> Sorry, not correct!! Always use Snopes before sending one of these  
> along!! Save us all from the infamous bandwidth hog!
>
> bob "got a little bandwidth here" browning
>
> AumaMarie at aol.com wrote:
>>
>> 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
>> 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, 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? You must send this fabulous bit of   
>> historical
>> knowledge to at least a few uneducated friends.
>>
>> class  dismissed
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