A little bit of trivia

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TRIVIA

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 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 the monkeys out of brass.

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 a vulgar

expression, didn't you?