Where I grew up, most of the old houses were balloon-framed. Talking to construction folks here, most have never heard of it, even those who have built houses for a living for years. I came across this video of how to do it and the pitfalls involved. If you aren't interested in construction, begin watching at the 19 minute mark, as it still has a message that hit home for me.
I don't know, but I don't think so. Most walls here are 2x6 or 2x8 on 16 inch centers, so I think they would hold up fine. I don't know much more about it than what was on the video, but many of the Victorian houses in my home town were built that way. How it was done in the 1860s I don't know. It would have taken quite a crew to stand 20 foot walls without machines.
Though I had never heard the term of “balloon framing”, the first thing I thought of was “cost”. Normally, a 16’x2”x6” is more expensive than buying 2-8’er’s. Then, I thought of the weight of having to throw a wall up but he covered that. I also thought to myself, self, I hope he threw in some fire breaks and yup, he did. I would actually like to see more of that type of framing especially in areas that are known for tornados such as where we live. It’s a given that if a house gets a direct hit, there’s not much that is going to be left no matter how the thing is built but modular framing makes the 2nd floor weaker than the 1st so it doesn’t take the full brunt of a tornado to demolish that 2nd floor. I helped build a few houses in and around the Palm Beach area and I’m really surprised that we didn’t use 2x6’s for the exterior walls and the balloon framing technique because of the hurricanes but then again, there’s the cost and cheap rich folks. They’ll have 20’ pillasters driven into the ground or beach but little else when it comes to actually keeping the home intact during a hurricane. Yeah, Florida code calls for hurricane clips on each rafter and joist but not much else other than a couple of 12 or 16p nails in the studs depending on if the nails are gun or hammered in. *note: gun nails have epoxy on the tips so whilst the nail may be smaller, the heat from being shot in melts the glue and then resets once in place.* Now that I think back, I do remember seeing barns with a second story hay loft that were built that way so it would stand to reason that farm homes were built that way too. Good clip Don!
My barnhouse is built a little like this (the walls and floors anyway) but the foundation is stone instead of pad and post. It's a couple hundred years old or so.