Too bad it's an urban legend though.
There is no record of any cannon ball stacking or organizing device
called a monkey, even a brass one. For various reasons, rust and rough
seas for example, cannon balls were never stored in this manner.
The earliest versions of this phrase used words like ears or tail or
whiskers or such.
To answer the expansion rate question, brass expands more rapidly than
cast iron, almost doubly so.
>>> Eric Taylor <5067375@sympatico.ca> 03/13/03 07:17PM >>>
Bill, I'm surprised a fellow Brit would not know which expands more,
Iron or Brass. Have you never heard of the expression "cold enough to
freeze the balls off a brass monkey".
This has nothing to do with a primate's private parts, but goes back to
the times of Nelson when the cannon balls were carried around the ship
on a brass "Monkey". If it was as cold as
it's been here in Ontario for the last three months, the iron balls
shrank more than the brass, and fell off the monkey! So that solves your
question - or does it? ;-)
/// spitfires@autox.team.net mailing list
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|