BALLOON FRAMES, 199 



ifc is beyond the reach of harm from any test within the bound of reason, and, 

 1 will venture to say, unapproachable in strength and durability by any form 

 of the old fashioned style of frame. 



This style of frame can be used with confidence for barns of all sizes, for all 

 manner of dwelling houses, outbuildings, &c. , and can be put up by anybody 

 of the least mechanical genius. In llural Architecture it is a good desidera- 

 tum, and although ridiculed by eastern mechanics, it will assume the same 

 importance that it has and still occupies in the West. 



There are many different plans for building these frames. Some lay the 

 first floor, and commence the frame on top of it — others, for small buildings, 

 put in the studding 4, G or 8 feet apart, with horizontal strips between, which 

 is a good plan where vertical siding is used — others tenon the studs and mor- 

 tice the sillt. — not desiruble, as it injures the strength, makes more work, and 

 hastens the decay of the timber. 



A first class balloon (ramo should be lined, if for vertical siding, outside the 

 studding — if horizontal siding is used, line inside ; it makes the frame stifier 

 and the building warmer. Some line diagonally, say from center next the 

 first floor towards extreme upper corners both ways ; othirs lino one side diago- 

 nally in one direction, and the other in an opposite direction. Tliis makes 

 assurance of strength doubly sure. If lined inside, nail perpendicular lath to 

 the lining 16 inches from centers, arid on this lath horizontally for plastering. 



If the house be much exposed, fill in between the studding with brick 

 turned edgeways, and laid in mortar. Put up in this manner the balloon 

 frame building is as warm as any other known style of wooden building. No 

 Hook and Ladder Company could ever pull it down ; they miglit roll it end 

 over end, like a basket, and with as little success of destroying it. 



It has been thorouglily tested in every position, and found fully adapted to 

 every known want for which wooden buildings are required, mills and manu- 

 factories excepted. Buildings for storage should have timber adapted tor 

 their uses; but the cutting of mortices and tenons, and boring augur holes, 

 thus reducing a heavy stick of timber to the strength of one very much 

 smaller, is a decided mistake. If the rural community want stronger build- 

 ings ai, a much less price, let them adopt the balloon frame. 



Agricultural societies have offered premiums for nearly every class of agri' 

 cultural and mechanical productions, but who ever heard of one inviting 

 competition in the art of building, in plans for barns, the various classes of 

 farm buildings and residences, in which department I will venture to say there 

 is a wide field for improvement, and equally as much so in the arrangement 

 as in the construction. We have premium or model farms each year — why 

 not have a model barn, or a model farm house, that shall take a prize, and 

 continue to do so until more successful ones be brouglit forward^ Then let 

 their plans, elevations, cost, &c., be published, and we shall at once make a 

 perceptible advance in home comforts and conveniences. 



The records of the Patent Office show this country to be profusely supplied 

 with inventive talent ; yet a new and original idea in the art of building does 

 not seem to have been put forth. Is it because a plan that promises a decrease 

 in expenses of building, meets with such disfavor among practical men as to 

 prevent its introduotion ' We plod on in the same old beaten track of our 

 forefathers, with all the faults that a scientific investigation shows to exist, and 

 apparently without an eflfort or a desire to dispense with useless work, weight 

 and encumbrance, and substitute real strength and economy. If architects 

 and practical men would turn their attention to investigating the strength and 

 arrangements of materials, and the improTement of the best existing models of 

 architecture, they would undoubtedly receive the thanks of the building com- 

 munity, who are too often made the means of experimental forays into the 

 field of originality. 



The existence of the balloon frame for wooden buildings seems to have been 

 called forth by necessity, and not by the mechanical skill or inventive genius 



