Does anyone know the origin of the expression, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey"? It has nothing to do with anatomy, animal or human.
In the days of sailing warships, it was desirable to stack cannon balls next to each cannon. The balls themselves couldn't be stacked; they simply rolled around. So a device was made of iron in the shape of a square plate with four indentations on each side to keep the cannon balls from rolling off. This allowed a total of 27 cannon balls to be stacked in a pyramid. This device was called a "monkey", for whatever reason.
There was one problem. Stacking iron cannon balls on an iron monkey in a salt water environment caused both the cannon balls and the monkey to rust badly. The rust problem was solved by making the monkeys out of brass.
One more problem though; upon changes in temperature, iron and brass expand and contract at different rates. If the temperature dropped to a certain point, the brass monkey would contract to a degree where the cannon balls would fall off. Hence, the expression, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey".
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Today's Featured Article - Restoration Story: Fordson Major - by Anthony West. George bought his Fordson Major from a an implement sale about 18 years ago for £200.00 (UK). There is no known history regarding its origins or what service it had done, but the following work was undertaken alone to bring it up to show standard. From the engine number, it was found that this Major was produced late 1946. It was almost complete but had various parts that would definitely need replacing.
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