Some facts from the 1500s!

[exile]

And since we have left the 16th century, from the 19th and the Crimea war:

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

The monkey was a frame for holding stacks of cannon balls. Brass/bronze was favoured since when moved across a stone surface it did not create sparks - something rather unfortunate if gunpowder is around. The steel/iron cannon balls were stacked on the monkey to form a pyramid. In the very cold winter of the Crimea the brass contracted much more than the steel to the point where the balls fell off the monkey.

[L Austin France]

And since we have left the 16th century, from the 19th and the Crimea war:



The monkey was a frame for holding stacks of cannon balls. Brass/bronze was favoured since when moved across a stone surface it did not create sparks -

Slight? digression but the above reminds me of the time in Miri, Sarawak when I visited a Shell off-shore platform in the S.China sea.
I was given the 'full- works' safety talk & kitted out in boiler suit & rubber soled anti-spark shoes.
My camera was 'quarantined' as was my briquet & off we went in a catamaran supply vessel.
All went well including the dodgy swinging rope assisted transfer from vessel to platform when the first thing I saw was a couple of labourers dragging a metal cabinet across a steel bridge.