THE PACIFIC CONNECTION

February 2009

Miles Lewis

stud and balloon frames

 building frame,
(purported to be Noah
building the ark), from
the Bedford Hours,
early C15th

Donald Matthew, Atlas of

Medieval Europe (Oxford
1983), p 145
 Joseph Moxon,
Mechanick Exercises
([nominal] 3rd ed,
London 1703), House
Carpenter's Work,
plate 11
trussed partition, 7 Robert Adam Street, London, c 1780
Robert Ayton
 principal member

discontinuous studs

stairway partition, 4 New Quebec Street, London, c 1790

Robert Ayton
 eighteenth century timber framing
nineteenth century trussed partition
Francis Price, The British Carpenter (London 1753), plate C
R S Burn, Building Construction (London 1877), p 49, fig 231
butting joints; 4 New Quebec Street, London, c 1790; display at
Carpenters Hall, Philadelphia
Robert Ayton; Miles Lewis
 balloon frame,
USA

I.C.S. Reference Library,

'Carpentry' (1900 [1897]), in
[vol 14] Carpentry Joinery
Stair Building &c (Scranton
[Pennsylvania] 1904), fig 72
the 'combination
frame' of the
USA

C M Gay, 'Wood Framing'

in F E Kidder & Harry
Parker, Kidder-Parker
Architects' and Builders'
Handbook (18th ed, New
York 1931), p 723,
modified.
 St Mary's Church, Chicago, 1833
Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: the Growth of a
New Traditions (4th ed, Cambridge [Massachusetts] 1963), p 345
balloon frame of
a two storey
house, USA,
1859

sills 3 X 10 [75 X 250]

W E Bell, Carpentry Made

Easy (1859) , plate 5
detail of the James C Cowing house near Peotone, Illinois, 1855
after a drawing by Allan Nelson in P E Sprague
President's Gallery, Queens' College, Cambridge, c 1540
Miles Lewis
'Elevation of two studd work cottages of the smallest size, with brick gables', by
Nathaniel Kent, 1776
Nathaniel Kent, Hints to Gentlemen of Landed Property (2nd ed, London 1776), facing p 263
house at the Bokrijk Museum, Belgium
Marc Laenen, no 59
'Elevation of two studd work
cottages of the smallest size,
with brick gables', by
Nathaniel Kent, 1776

Nathaniel Kent, Hints to Gentlemen of

Landed Property (2nd ed, London 1776),
facing p 263

house at the Bokrijk Museum

a 'frame house, ?USA, 1853
R S Burn, The Colonist's and Emigrant's Handbook
of the Mechanical Arts (Edinburgh 1853), p 46
 details of an American balloon frame
(simplified joints and skew nailing)
R S Burn, Building Construction (London 1877), pp 90, 91
characteristics of the US balloon frame
derived from Europe
close studding
the horizontal girt

new industrial characteristics

smaller sizes of timber
standardised sizes of timber
simplified timber joints
extensive use of nails
 factors responsible for the balloon
frame in the USA

high cost of labour

makes complicated joints and shapes impractical
efficient sawmills
make smaller and standardised timber sizes more
economic than larger and more varied ones
cheap cut and wire nails
make nailed joints cheaper than traditional ones
the social acceptability of timber
makes two storey timber houses common
base details of the Fencible Cottages, Panmure,
New Zealand, parallel and transverse to the joists
after C P Murphy, 'The Fencible Cottage: Soldier Housing
(MArch, University of Auckland 1995), pp 138, 139
plan of the corner of a cottage at Burra, 1849
after Peter Bell, 'An Early Timber Cottage
at Burra' [undated typescript], p 10
Model School for the National School Commissioners, Victoria,
by F M White, 1852; section and elevation
Lawrence Burchell, Victorian Schools: a Study in Colonial Government Architecture 1837-
1900 (Melbourne 1980), p 46
Model School for the
National School
Commissioners, my
modification of
Burchell's
reconstruction

after Burchell, Victorian

Schools, p 48
 bracing treatments
'Barwon Bank', Geelong, 1853, studs and braces both 100 mm square, studs fully
interrupted
Anglican Church, Clunes, 1860, light bracing let into the studs
'Glenown', Glenmaggie, Gippsland, a farmhouse of c 1871, close to a sawmill and built
with light sawn scantling but traditional interrupted stud bracing
Australasian Steam Navigation Co, Sydney, by a conservative architect, W W Wardell,
in 1883, with traditional sizes and interrupted studs, as at 'Barwon Bank
Miles Lewis
Robert Haddons illustrations of the Australian stud frame, 1908 & c 1910
Robert Haddon, Australian Archi-tecture (Melbourne, no date [1908]), p 327
'Detail of Framed House', Robert Haddon, 'Australian Planning and Construction',
in G A T Middleton [ed], Modern Buildings (6 vols, London, no date [c 1910]), V, p 192
 balloon frame
construction, asw
illustrated by
Woodward, 1869

G E Woodward, Woodward's
Country Homes, 1869.
 balloon frame of a
1 storey house,
USA, c 1845-1859

sills 8 x 8 [200 x 200]

studs 2 x 4 in [50 x 100]
puncheons 4 x 4 [100 x 100]
corner posts undefined
ribbon 4 x 1 or 6 x 1
[100 x 25 or 150 x 25]

W E Bell, Carpentry Made Easy

(1859) , plate 5
 Bells balloon
frame house
sills 8 x 8 [200 x 200]
studs 2 x 4 in [50 x 100]
puncheons 4 x 4 [100 x
100]

Kents
studd-worke
cottages
studs 3 x 5 [77 x 125]
puncheons 5 X 6 [235.

W E Bell, Carpentry Made Easy

(1859) , plate 5
Kent, Hints to Gentlemen of
Landed Property
 ribbon 4 x 1 [100 x 100] or 6 x 1 [150 x 25]

stud 2 x 4 in
[50 x 100]

puncheon 4 x 4
[100 x 100]

sill 8 x 8 [200 x 200] ? corner post unspecified

Bells balloon frame 1 storey house