PEOPLELOVER
Hope I didn`t upset anyone by saying who knows not who can google, got a couple of testy ones.
The freezing of the balls off a brass monkey has a couple of suggested derivations. The one I opt for is that on the old Man-o-War sailing ships the cannon balls were steel. They were stored on a brass rack to avoid sparking and so setting off the gun powder. This device was called the Monkey and the boys who handed the shot and powder were powder monkeys.
In extreme cold the brass would contract to such an extent "The balls would fall off the brass monkey"
2 Answers
daren1
how about the expression" powder monkeys"that come from the us revolution during the colonial battles on board the ships they would use 12-16 year old boys to run gun powder to the various cannons on board . they chose the yougsters cause they were the quickest and most agile .
| 14 years ago. Rating: 1 | |
PEOPLELOVER
