It's So Cold Outside...

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Not a myth, but the reason they are cast with more brass cradling the ball than some bean-counters thought necessary.
It is a myth. The internet can spread misinformation faster than five washerwomen.

It is often stated that the phrase originated from the use of a brass tray, called a "monkey", to hold cannonballs on warships in the 16th to 18th centuries. Supposedly, in very cold temperatures the "monkey" would contract, causing the balls to fall off.[15] However, nearly all historians and etymologists consider this story to be a myth. This story has been discredited by the U.S. Department of the Navy,[16] etymologist Michael Quinion, and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).[17]"​
They give five main reasons:
  1. The OED does not record the term "monkey" or "brass monkey" being used in this way.
  2. The purported method of storage of cannonballs ("round shot") is simply false. The shot was not stored on deck continuously on the off-chance that the ship might go into battle. Indeed, decks were kept as clear as possible.
  3. Furthermore, such a method of storage would result in shot rolling around on deck and causing a hazard in high seas. The shot was stored on the gun or spar decks, in shot racks—wooden planks with holes bored into them, known as shot garlands in the Royal Navy, into which round shot was inserted for ready use by the gun crew.
  4. Shot was not left exposed to the elements where it could rust. Such rust could lead to the ball not flying true or jamming in the barrel and exploding the gun. Indeed, gunners would attempt to remove as many imperfections as possible from the surfaces of balls.
  5. The physics does not stand up to scrutiny. The contraction of both balls and plate over the range of temperatures involved would not be particularly large. The effect claimed could be reproduced under laboratory conditions with objects engineered to a high precision for this purpose, but it is unlikely it would ever have occurred in real life aboard a warship.
 
Yeah, like the ratio is such that theyd fall off from simple wave action before it shrank that far, but i like dads take. And it far predates algore's invention of the innertnert.

Dads are good at spinnin' yarns.

You believe what you want to believe.
 
Dads are good at spinnin' yarns.

You believe what you want to believe.
He liked a good tale. He also knew the classic brass monkey dident belong on a battleship (much as the british museums would have you think) because they were for landbased cannon, but breaking from the cold is a very real thing with cheap and badly cast alloys, and the balls may roll across the dock but never the deck.
 
He liked a good tale. He also knew the classic brass monkey dident belong on a battleship (much as the british museums would have you think) because they were for landbased cannon, but breaking from the cold is a very real thing with cheap and badly cast alloys, and the balls may roll across the dock but never the deck.
If brass broke in the cold, it wouldn't be used for cleats on sailing ship or bells or any of the thousand other things that it was used for on a sailing ship.

If you look at photos of landbased cannons, they didn't use "monkeys" there either, they were just stacked in a pyramid with the bottom layer constrained by a frame of some sort. A rack for stacking in a pyramid really wouldn't make any sense because the empty layers would impede access to the lower full layers.
 
If brass broke in the cold, it wouldn't be used for cleats on sailing ship or bells or any of the thousand other things that it was used for on a sailing ship.

If you look at photos of landbased cannons, they didn't use "monkeys" there either, they were just stacked in a pyramid with the bottom layer constrained by a frame of some sort. A rack for stacking in a pyramid really wouldn't make any sense because the empty layers would impede access to the lower full layers.
The pyramidal arrangement was the classic monkey. Anything else aint militry. The brass was the square, triangular, or hexagonal base frame on the ground that stayed the spheres of fear and destruction in their ordered pattern. Cheap, and Badly Cast alloys, can and will break in the verry cold, iirc too much tin. Marine bronze absolutely is a fantastic alloy, but a landlover wouldnt be using such an expensive and specialised formulation.
 
I went home at 3am from work and it was -7°. I was on top of the hospital several times last night resetting air handling units that had tripped out on freeze stat. It's 14° now and everything seems to be running smoothly so far.

My grandpa used to say that snow crunches at 10° when you walk on it and it squeaks at 0°. Last night with the wind and temperature there was a brass monkey warning!
People dont want to believe my temperature estimate by how my mustache freezes, until they find a thermometer. I used to carry a small ski-ers thermometer while patrolling, had a windchill factor chart on the back, which i memorised as a scout, about the time i memorised the approximate metric conversions. The crunch vs squeak is about right, too.
 
If brass broke in the cold, it wouldn't be used for cleats on sailing ship or bells or any of the thousand other things that it was used for on a sailing ship.

If you look at photos of landbased cannons, they didn't use "monkeys" there either, they were just stacked in a pyramid with the bottom layer constrained by a frame of some sort. A rack for stacking in a pyramid really wouldn't make any sense because the empty layers would impede access to the lower full layers.
Ships bells are made of Bronze. its a totally different alloy of copper. Cleats metallurgy I don't know. Any sailors here.
 
Ships bells are made of Bronze. its a totally different alloy of copper. Cleats metallurgy I don't know. Any sailors here.
I stand corrected, however many bells are brass.

People working hard to prove an internet "fact" that reputable sources say is not a "fact."
 
People dont want to believe my temperature estimate by how my mustache freezes, until they find a thermometer. I used to carry a small ski-ers thermometer while patrolling, had a windchill factor chart on the back, which i memorised as a scout, about the time i memorised the approximate metric conversions. The crunch vs squeak is about right, too.
We are forecasted to be 36° with a windchill of 32° for Friday overnight. Been cold for days but supposed to be in the 70's on Sunday. Then back to normal for us, upper 70's and low 80's.
 
You guys are killing off all the good old stories.... you should be ashamed..!!!!
"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bulls--t."

J.
 
There are many alloys of brass and bronze, each has properties best suited for particular applications,. Lesser alloys are cheaper than proper selections, but even the right alloy may suffer from poor or even terrible casting conditions and design. Yes, you may find brass aboard, but the more critical applications are for corrosion resistance, ductility, strength, wear resistance, and will often be bronze, not brass, and indistinguishable to the average observer, so gets called brass. Gunmetal is actually a bronze alloy...
The cenentury 45-70 is manganese bronze; stronger than some steels. Dont know about the phelps or the golden bison or whatever.
 

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