balloon-frame
n.— «These dwellings are called balloon frames because of the light feel and voluminous space created by the vertical studs that run from the ground to the roof line. A balloon-frame house is one in which the exterior timber frame constitutes the main structural component of the house. These barn-like buildings often were constructed in just days. Yet many of them still endure more than 120 years later.» —“Beautiful balloons” by Tom Corbett Sun-Times (Chicago) July 27, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...