this was fwd to me, thought it was funny..
chris

> In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters
> carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It
> was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent
> them from rolling about the deck?
> The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid
> with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on
> sixteen. Thus, a supply of thirty 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
> called a "Monkey" with sixteen round indentations. But, if this plate was
> 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 dirty expression, didn't you?)