"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
That one is pure bull ****e. It claimed that the racks the pyramids of
cannonballs were stacked on were made of brass and called "brass monkeys".
The story goes that differential thermal contraction in cold weather would
be enough to make the balls fall off them. No mention of why they wouldn't
fall off in hot weather from the motions of a rolling

The stacks did become slack during extreme heat. The brass monkey became
looser. Only when it tightened excessively did the balls begin to roll off.

Keep in mind that a triangular pyramid stack of spheres is stable to +-60
degrees of roll. That's a heavy sea.

LLoyd