Pat Shingleton for June 25, 2012

Early warships were equipped with iron cannonballs, stacked next to the cannons. As noted in a previous column, a method was devised to stack 30 cannonballs in a pyramid configuration with 16 balls on the bottom to one on top. The design saved space. However, the movement of the ship sent the balls rolling, and sometimes overboard. The solution was a metal plate called a Monkey that included 16 round indentations. To prevent the iron balls from rusting, the Monkey was unfortunately made of brass which contracts faster than iron in cold weather. When below freezing conditions occurred, the brass indentations shrunk and the iron cannonballs would lift off the Monkey. Thus the expression, “its cold enough to freeze the (expletive deleted) off the Brass Monkey.” Fastcast: Oppressive