"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
We've all heard the expression, "cold enough to freeze the balls off a
brass
monkey."

..

In fact, the phrase derives from the brass cannon called a "monkey" in the
seventeenth century. In very cold temperatures, the iron cannonballs and
the
bras cannon would contract at markedly different rates, so much so that
the gun
would be unusable. Sailors referred to this phenonenon as "freezing the
balls
of a brass monkey," the keyword being "of", not "off", and hence the
expression
was literally true at the time.


Still hard to believe!
If you calculate the rates of expansion between the two metals there is very
little differance in size from the high temps to low temps. For example
figure a 6" bore and the temps ranging 100 degrees fereinheit. Figuring the
bore and ball fit at the high end, the ball will be only .002" smaller at
the low end of the scale. I don't know what the manufacturing tolerances
were in those days, but I doubt they could maintain +/-.010" let alone
+/-.002".
Greg

Throw in a liberal amount of bore erosion from that nasty powder they used and
swabbing with salt water. I suppose that tolerance opens up quite a bit as this
cannon ages.