Cannon Balls a history lesson

Cannon Balls a history lesson

This is not rude so it will be a bit of a surprise considering it came from me.... :-)

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 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, for reasons unknown, 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 them of brass - hence,
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, most folks thought that was just a vulgar expression?

You must send this fabulous bit of historical knowledge to at least a
few intellectual friends.

I could not think of any who fits this criteria so I showed it to you.