The real meaning of BRASS MONKEY!

[Bren]

Found this online tonight....interesting...


Betcha didn't know this!

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon, but how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was 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 or rolling from under the others.

The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. 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 that was an improper _expression, didn't you?)

[Oakie]

God I must be getting old. I can remember when that phrase 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey' came into vogue. And then a year or two later someone named a bike rally after it.

[Swoop]

Partially correct as far as I know. Ball retention device = correct. Sailing ships didn't get cold enough. Origin was from Crimean[?] war when ground temperatures were cold enough on the brass to deform the metal.
afaik.

[Skunk]

Yes, I did know that. Happened to me many times going around Cape Horn.

[Lias]

Betcha didn't know this!

Betcha I did!

[scumdog]

Some of us must be wayyy older than some of the others....

[Steam]

No no, it's all a myth. It can't even be true for land-based "brass monkeys", since: "The differential linear coefficient of linear expansion between iron and brass is 0.000008 per degree centigrade. It means the "brass monkey" shrinks about 0.01 inch in the worst of weather - hardly enough to topple the balls."

http://mtskeptics.homestead.com/BadFacts.html
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=507115
http://www.townsvillemaritimemuseum.org.au/brassmonkey.htm

"According to the Naval Historical Center of the U.S. Department of the Navy, there's no evidence that there was ever a device called a brass monkey:

The first recorded use of the term "brass monkey" appears to dates to 1857 when it was used in an apparently vulgar context by C.A. Abbey in his book Before the Mast, where on page 108 it says "It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey."

It has often been claimed that the "brass monkey" was a holder or storage rack in which cannon balls (or shot) were stacked on a ship. Supposedly when the "monkey" with its stack of cannon ball became cold, the contraction of iron cannon balls led to the balls falling through or off of the "monkey."
This explanation appears to be a legend of the sea without historical justification. In actuality, ready service shot was kept on the gun or spar decks in shot racks (also known as shot garlands in the Royal Navy) which consisted of longitudinal wooden planks with holes bored into them, into which round shot (cannon balls) were inserted for ready use by the gun crew.

In very cold weather it is claimed the brass contracted more than the iron balls, consequently toppled the pile and thereby giving rise to the aforementioned phrase. If you determined veracity only by the predominance of opinion (i.e. the vocal majority), that explanation is undeniable. The only problem is that it is not true and none of these thousand "authorities" bothered to verify that fact, which would have been very easy to do.

The differential linear coefficient of linear expansion between iron and brass is 0.000008 per degree centigrade. It means the "brass monkey" shrinks about 0.01 inch in the worst of weather - hardly enough to topple the balls."

[mdooher]

The truth is possibly a lot more simple... it is a huge exaggeration it never gets that cold.

Or another possibility is that the real reason balls fall off a brass monkey is the ice forming between them pushing them apart

[idb]

Well...I've frozen my balls off at the Brass Monkey.
I'm unsure of their coefficient of linear expansion but I know it was bloody cold.

[RC1]

Betcha I did!

yeah same here heard it over 20yrs ago

[Paul in NZ]

Yes, I did know that. Happened to me many times going around Cape Horn.

My bikes got a horn and it's been to a cape.... and it got cold once, I had to wear socks...

[roogazza]

Probably correct , but I am lead to believe that "brass monkeys" were used for special occasions , parades etc. which as you could imagine would be highly polished and look quite smart ? But yes , that is where the term originated . G.

[Coldrider]

The magazine for the storage of gun powder were lead lined to avoid static electricity, one spark & BOOM, the ship was gone, the guy who carried the gun powder up to the cannons was called the 'powder boy'. Not a good job to have.

[MisterD]

The magazine for the storage of gun powder were lead lined to avoid static electricity, one spark & BOOM, the ship was gone, the guy who carried the gun powder up to the cannons was called the 'powder boy'. Not a good job to have.

Ahem. Powder monkey, and anyone who has ever visited HMS victory will tell you, the magazine is copper lined.

and while we're on the subject of apocryphal spherical objects (try saying that after a few)...the expression "going balls out" actually refers to the spinning balls on the governer of a steam engine...

[Coldrider]

I should have paid more attention to the worst jobs in history doco.

[Pixie]

The Concise Bugtussle Pixienary defines Brass Monkey as:

A small arboreal primate rendered in a copper / zinc alloy.