larsen-tools wrote:
Your joke is well taken however, FYI, a brass monkey was a device used by
the British to keep cannon balls stacked in a pyramid. When the weather got
cold enough, and the brass contracted, the cannon balls wouldn't stay
put..... hence the phrase "freeze the balls off a brass monkey"........... I
think that's right.

I just can't let you go on believing that one ....Think about the
coefficients of expansion, too small a change to make much of a
difference in any depressions made deep enough to keep the balls from
rolling off as the ship rocked.

http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.htm

BTW, I've got a pair of those Chinese Balls in a nice little brocade
cloth covered "jewelry box", but frankly they've never done much for me.

I suspect that they were originally two hollow hemispherical castings
brazed together, but nowadays they probably use stampings.

Seems like electron beam welding works too:

http://www.ebindustries.com/hollowballs.htm

There's just no end of uses for such things....

http://www.adulttoysngifts.com/detai...?num=DOCJ-0642

Or watch Bogie in a rerun of "The Caine Mutiny".

Jeff (Ducking...)


--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Strive to be first....Second place is just the first loser..."


"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...

Ray wrote:


You know, the Chinese iron balls with the chimes inside like
http://www.uran.net/zlb/cloisonneexerciseballs.htm ?
Some are chrome plated and quite smooth. They've been around for

hundreds

of years, though I don't know if they originally had the chimes inside.

I'd

hate to have to cut one open to find out!



Maybe they dip brass monkeys in liquid nitrogen?

Jeff

--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying."






--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying."