![FREEZE THE BALLS OFF A BRASS MONKEY [MAY NOT MEAN WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS]-118726 | by infomatique](http://live.staticflickr.com/8409/27802064564_cfe1ca498a.jpg)
FREEZE THE BALLS OFF A BRASS MONKEY [MAY NOT MEAN WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS]-118726
My understanding is that a ‘Brass Monkey’ should contain 30 Cannon Balls … the one in my photograph contains a lot more than thirty.
When I was young I was sent home from school because I used the expression “Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey” when complaining on behalf of the class that the classroom was cold.
My father was really annoyed with the school insisting that a brass monkey was something used to store cannon balls and that he could not understand why I had been suspended from class.
After my visit to Elizabeth Fort in Cork I decided to investigate further and came across two different stories that do not agree.
[FIRST EXPLANATION] According to the United States Navy Historical Center, this is a legend of the sea without historical justification. The center has researched this because of the questions it gets and says the term “brass monkey” and a vulgar reference to the effect of cold on the monkey’s extremities, appears to have originated in the book “Before the Mast” by C.A. Abbey. It was said that it was so cold that it would “freeze the tail off a brass monkey.” The Navy says there is no evidence that the phrase had anything to do with ships or ships with cannon balls.
[SECOND EXPLANATION]Every sailing ship had to have cannon for protection. Cannon of the times required round iron cannonballs. The master wanted to store the cannonballs such that they could be of instant use when needed, yet not roll around the gun deck. The solution was to stack them up in a square-based pyramid next to the cannon. The top level of the stack had one ball, the next level down had four, the next had nine, the next had sixteen, and so on. Four levels would provide a stack of 30 cannonballs. The only real problem was how to keep the bottom level from sliding out from under the weight of the higher levels. To do this, they devised a small brass plate ("brass monkey") with one rounded indentation for each cannonball in the bottom layer. Brass was used because the cannonballs wouldn't rust to the "brass monkey", but would rust to an iron one.
When temperature falls, brass contracts in size faster than iron. As it got cold on the gun decks, the indentations in the brass monkey would get smaller than the iron cannonballs they were holding. If the temperature got cold enough, the bottom layer would pop out of the indentations spilling the entire pyramid over the deck. Thus it was, quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.
FREEZE THE BALLS OFF A BRASS MONKEY [MAY NOT MEAN WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS]-118726
My understanding is that a ‘Brass Monkey’ should contain 30 Cannon Balls … the one in my photograph contains a lot more than thirty.
When I was young I was sent home from school because I used the expression “Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey” when complaining on behalf of the class that the classroom was cold.
My father was really annoyed with the school insisting that a brass monkey was something used to store cannon balls and that he could not understand why I had been suspended from class.
After my visit to Elizabeth Fort in Cork I decided to investigate further and came across two different stories that do not agree.
[FIRST EXPLANATION] According to the United States Navy Historical Center, this is a legend of the sea without historical justification. The center has researched this because of the questions it gets and says the term “brass monkey” and a vulgar reference to the effect of cold on the monkey’s extremities, appears to have originated in the book “Before the Mast” by C.A. Abbey. It was said that it was so cold that it would “freeze the tail off a brass monkey.” The Navy says there is no evidence that the phrase had anything to do with ships or ships with cannon balls.
[SECOND EXPLANATION]Every sailing ship had to have cannon for protection. Cannon of the times required round iron cannonballs. The master wanted to store the cannonballs such that they could be of instant use when needed, yet not roll around the gun deck. The solution was to stack them up in a square-based pyramid next to the cannon. The top level of the stack had one ball, the next level down had four, the next had nine, the next had sixteen, and so on. Four levels would provide a stack of 30 cannonballs. The only real problem was how to keep the bottom level from sliding out from under the weight of the higher levels. To do this, they devised a small brass plate ("brass monkey") with one rounded indentation for each cannonball in the bottom layer. Brass was used because the cannonballs wouldn't rust to the "brass monkey", but would rust to an iron one.
When temperature falls, brass contracts in size faster than iron. As it got cold on the gun decks, the indentations in the brass monkey would get smaller than the iron cannonballs they were holding. If the temperature got cold enough, the bottom layer would pop out of the indentations spilling the entire pyramid over the deck. Thus it was, quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.