balloon roof n, freq attrib
A roof, esp a barn roof, with an approximately semicircular section, esp one framed so as to have the minimum of internal obstructions; hence adj balloon-roofed having such a roof; n balloon barn a barn with such a roof.
1893 Boston Daily Globe (MA) 25 Jan 5/3 FL, The Casino covers an area of 200 by 300 feet. . . The principal damage by fire is to the ball room, sleeping apartments and balloon roof. 1900 Carpentry & Building 22.113 TX, I have a box house 28 x 36 feet in size, which has a common gable roof. . . What I want to know is, are the walls sufficiently stout to support a balloon roof . . with three or four additional rooms on the second floor? 1901 New Castle News (PA) 13 Nov [17]/1 (newspaperarchive.com), Charlie and Bert Dinsmore are building a balloon barn for John Pontius. 1907 Radford Practical Barn Plans 27, [Heading:] A Balloon Roofed Barn. Ibid 69, The balloon roof construction makes it possible to store a great deal of feed over head. It leaves a clear space for the horse fork which works freely from one end of the building to the other. Roofs like this are comparatively new. The first ones built were not strong enough to stand heavy winds and some of them blew down, but there has been no such trouble recently. If properly braced each side forms a truss and the two trusses meet together at the peak. 1913 Kansas City Times (MO) 15 May sec A 10/1, There are too few jobs in this world for employers to give one to a man who looks like a balloon barn after a windstorm. 1930 Sterling Daily Gaz. (IL) 8 Jan 12/2, He built . . a balloon roofed dairy barn with a capacity for 20 cows. 1948 Long Beach Independent (CA) 21 June 28/6, [Advt:] Guest house, laundry house, balloon roof barn, large chicken house. 1950 WELS (Shapes of roofs on barns) 3 Infs, ce, cwWI, Balloon roof. [2 Infs drew pictures.] 1963 Daily Telegram (Eau Claire WI) 6 Mar 22/3, [Advt:] Almost new 28×56 “Bloomer Stone” basement, metal balloon roofed hog house. . . New 44×100 steel balloon roofed machine shed. 1977 Winona Daily News (MN) 9 Mar sec b 8/3, [Advt:] Balloon roof driveway type dairy barn with 42 large steel stalls plus maternity pens. 1984 MJLF 10.146 cnWI, Balloon barn. Barn with an arched roof. 2004 WI State Jrl. (Madison) 12 Sept sec J 23/6, [Advt:] Farmette, 40×80 metal shed, 40×80 balloon roof barn.