History of Ralph's Rabbit Ranch

History of Ralph's Rabbit Ranch

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Brass Monkeys and Cold Weather - an important lesson from Ralph's Rabbit Ranch



Like most people you might think the old expression 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey' is an inappropriate term and somewhat of an color expression which should never be said in mixed company.  Well after reading this article you will learn this term can definitely be said anywhere - anytime - without offending anyone. This term really does have a significant historical meaning which is based on scientific principles.

It seems during the heydays of sailing ships, many vessels including freighters and trawlers had huge iron cannons mounted on their decks. 












The cannons were necessary to provide protection should a hostile or enemy vessel try to attack.  Remember Pirates also roamed the high seas back them.  Anyway those iron cannons fired 'large round' iron cannon balls and it was necessary for each ship to keep a good supply of cannon balls near each cannon.





The problem most ships faced was that those sailing ships always pitched and yawed when across the waves.  They needed some way to prevent the supply of round cannon balls from rolling around the rocking decks? The solution sea captains devised was simple and effective. 

They would stack the round cannon balls in a square-based pyramid - with one ball on top of another.  The balls were placed sixteen on the bottom, followed by nine laid on top and then and four would rest on the nine.  With one final ball on top.

Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked and secured in a small area right there on the ship's deck next to each cannon.



There was however only one problem with this ingenious method of stacking cannon balls.  How could the ship's crew prevent the bottom layer of cannon balls from rolling about from under the other cannon balls during rough seas?

The solution that seemed to work was the invention of a flat metal plate called a 'Monkey'. The monkey - and it took four monkeys total - were screwed to the ship's wooden deck. Each monkey had round indentations hammered into them. These indentations in the metal where were the bottoms of 16 'round cannon balls' rested in.

Initially all Monkeys or metal plates were made of cheap iron. However it soon became obvious that the iron cannons balls resting on iron plates began to rust due to all that salt water spray and mist in the air. So to prevent the cannon balls and monkeys from rusting naval engineers began to develop Monkeys made of bass - as brass is one of the few inexpensive metals that does not rust.  Thus the term Brass Monkey was coined.












Unfortunately, brass itself is not a perfect metal; it tends to expand and contract with the weather. Consequently, when the wind temperatures on a ship sailing in the north Atlantic or Pacific dropped to around 32 degrees the indentations in the brass monkeys would shrink or pop up thus the iron cannonballs on the bottom tier had no secure resting place and they would often roll right off the brass monkeys causing a disaster of cannon balls rolling around the deck. 

Sailors quickly saw for themselves the limitations Brass Monkeys had and any sailor worth his salt knew that whenever the outside temperature began to fall to around freezing it was literally 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'.  

Hope you enjoyed this brief and relevant history lesson.

Remember - here at Ralph's Rabbit Ranch - Home of Gabe's Gourmet Rabbits - we not only sell great tasting rabbit meat and quality fur products we also provide valuable information and knowledge you can use. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Follow @Ralphsranch