[AT] old expressions

[charlie hill]

Greg, that is "cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey"

A monkey was a tray that looked somewhat like a muffin tin that was used to 
stack cannon balls on the deck of  sailing ships.  Once they got the balls 
in the indentations on the monkey they could stack more balls on top into a 
pyramid shaped pile.  Iron monkeys tended to rust so monkeys were sometimes 
made of brass.  In cold weather the brass would shrink at a different rate 
than the cannon balls so that it would "freeze" them off the monkey.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg Whittaker" <gwhittak at fbconnectu.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 10:38 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] old expressions


> "Colder than the balls on a brass monkey"  Something to do with the rack 
> that cannon balls were stored on
>
> Greg W.
>
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