MANURE ~ AN INTERESTING FACT.......!!

[Hattie the Hen]

Just an amusing little fact I picked up from a favourite UK site I drop into every now & then.......I had never heard this before....!!


Manure An interesting fact

Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large shipments of manure were common.
It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by-product is methane gas.
As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles, you can see what could (and did) happen.
Methane began to build up below decks and the first
time someone came below at night with a lantern,
BOOOOM!
Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening.
After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term 'Ship High In Transit' on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.
Thus evolved the term ' S.H.I.T ' ,
(Ship High In Transport) which has come down
through the centuries and is in use to this very day..
You may not have known the true history of this word.


[from The Cottage Smallholder- Joke of the Day | On the sun-lounger | = Forum = http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/forum#ixzz1BBPXNPys ]


Our weather is suddenly improving here so I hope to be able to clean out my 3 chicken coops & deal with the prolific accumulation of the said
product into deep pits where I intend to grow beans & zucchini etc later in the year. It actually looks as if we may have a week without rain........this will be a miracle as since our 5 weeks of snow & ice melted it has rained heavily for 3 weeks.
I wish you all the weather you most need & want......!!!

Bring on the Spring & the planting! I need it badly.


Hattie

 

[lesa]

Very funny, Hattie!! I hate to imagine what those ships smelled like, by the time they reached there destinations! Glad your weather is getting better. We still have a long time to go, here in upstate NY, before anything promising... Below zero with the wind chill and a predicted 7 inches today!!! Grrr! I want spring! Happy Gardening!

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's amazing how many sayings can be attributed to British nautical interests.

When fighting with a cannon, it is convenient to store some cannonballs near the cannon. The traditional method on land was to stack them in a pyramid. But with all that movement due to the seas, a ship's deck was not very stable and cannon balls tended to roll when put on the deck, let alone trying to stack them. This problem was solved by using a brass triangle, called a monkey, to enclose the cannon balls that formed the base of the pyramid.

As many know, different metals expand and contract at different rates due to changes in temperature. The British navy sailed from the equator to the arctic. Sometimes it would get so cold that the balls would roll off that brass monkey, thus freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

My story may be sometimes attributed to the British navy, but it is not true. The British did not store cannon balls on deck in pyramids. They cut holes in planks to store them. The difference in temperature to cause enough differential shrinkage in brass to iron to cause the balls to roll off is too great. It would not happen in real life. It is still a cute story.

Get luck on getting the weather to handle that chicken guano. Wet is often more of a problem that cold with me too in many activities this time of year.