It is possible to learn something new each day. Here's your little bit of knowledge for today.
Cannon Balls
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 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 a vulgar expression, didn't you?
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6 comments:
Wow.... I never knew...
I always found the term "Dead Ringer" interesting. It seems that sometime in the 1400's, someone figured out that they were burying not quite dead people. This was realized by finding claw marks on the inside covers of the pine boxes, which occasionally were popped out of the ground during floods.
They decided to tie a string around the "dead" person's finger, and run it up to a bell on top of the grave. They then hired someone to sit there all night and listen for the bell.
People rescued from the grave were called "dead ringers" and the term soon developed into a term for one's look alike.
BTW, the person who was hired to sit around all night listening for the bell was identified as working the "graveyard" shift, so this activity actually spawned two well used terms.
I learned my fact of the day now. Can I stay home from work and go back to bed?
No kkdither...go out and meet people and spread the news! We don't want people in Racine not knowing Wa'sp!
That should be in my useless file I am keeping. Love it. Some of mine....Paragauy is the only country with a design on both sides of their flag. Absolute zero is -459.67 F or -273 C. There was NEVER a date of Sept. 3 1752. Oh well...Happy St Paddys Day!
You guys know I can only hold so much information in my little brain. In order for me to learn new stuff something in my memory needs to go. Great.....who's house am I in?
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