Thread: Brrrrr!

Didn't realise W.A. had brass monkey winters.

Amazing how everything but the roller door and its mechanism got frozen! Some digital jokers? Maybe a major plumbing failure upstairs?

Looks like a Fire sprinkler malfunction to me. Probably a dry system that charged inadvertantly.

There certainly seems to have been a massive ingress of water somehow. It may have come from an upper area as it looks like ceiling insulation has collapsed at the rear left, and maybe right across the roof.

Whatever the reason for the moisture it looks dam cold there.

Regards

Neil.

Originally Posted by echnidna

Didn't realise W.A. had brass monkey winters.

A fun fact just because i've got a little time. This is where the phrase "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" comes from. Canonballs used to be stacked inside a square metal railing (in a pyramid) called a "monkey". At first they were made of iron, but they found that in the winter the balls would freeze to the monkey, and couldn't be removed. So, they started to make the "monkeys" out of brass. However in bittercold weather the iron balls and the brass monkey would contract at different rates and the balls would spill over the top. hence "cold enought to spill the balls off a brass monkey"

Before I learned this I was certin that there was a brass statue somewhere of a monkey that was missing it's 'nads.

now, I'll be dissapointed if this post isn't a catylist for at least 10 jokes.

Thanks Ryan at least I learned one thing today....

HH.

Originally Posted by ryanarcher

However in bittercold weather the iron balls and the brass monkey would contract at different rates .

In bitter cold my iron balls and brass monkey contract a different rates too.

sorry, couldn't help starting it off.

Originally Posted by ryanarcher

In bitter cold my iron balls and brass monkey contract a different rates too.

sorry, couldn't help starting it off.

I've been told spanking the monkey can cure this.

HH.

Brass Monkey

"Askoxford" has a different view.

The story goes that cannonballs used to be stored aboard ship in piles, on a brass frame or tray called a 'monkey'. In very cold weather the brass would contract, spilling the cannonballs: hence very cold weather is 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey'. There are several problems with this story. The first is that the term 'monkey' is not otherwise recorded as the name for such an object. The second is that the rate of contraction of brass in cold temperatures is unlikely to be sufficient to cause the reputed effect. The third is that the phrase is actually first recorded as 'freeze the tail off a brass monkey', which removes any essential connection with balls. It therefore seems most likely that the phrase is simply a ribald allusion to the fact that metal figures will become very cold to the touch in cold weather (and some materials will become brittle).

I'm with you Pete - this is a great story but an Urban Myth.

If you think about it, if cannonballs were piled on little brass racks that would let the cannonballs loose if teh weather got cold then they would be rolling around every time they went through a rough patch of weather.

There's a similar discussion in snopes
http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.htm

So where did the one about freeze the tits off a tin lizard come from?

Was a lizard the thing they stored nuclear missiles on back in the 50's ?

This saying is actually due to a pommy mishearing an old Australian expression, "Cold enough to freeze the walls off a bark humpy"

Balls etc


Q. Do you know why Policemen have big balls?

A. Because more people buy tickets.

Sorry, it has been a long day

5T

As I understand it, somewhere sometime ago, Monkeys were trained to scamper around ships supplying fodder for the cannons.

That is where the terminology did start from and later on in life naval ratings in English ships who did the same job, were referred as powder monkeys.

I'm not exactly sure if this is technically correct, but I'm reasonably sure it's on the right path.

Mick.