Roofus

Roofus

How do churches stop the rain ?
And send the downpours down the drain ?
That’s pretty simple to explain –

See, the footings hold the buttress,
And the buttress holds the flyer,
And the flyer holds the corbel,
And the corbel takes the strain.
For the corbel hold the springbrace,
And the stringbrace holds the hammerbeam,
And hammerbeams hold hammerposts,
And up, and up again.
These hammerposts hold collar-ties,
And the collar holds the kingpost high,
And the kingpost holds the ridge-beam,
And in turn, the weathervane.
So the kingpost holds the struts up,
And struts support the rafters –
Or at least, they hold the principals –
(The big ones, in the main.)
Then the rafters holds the purlins,
And the purlins holds the sheathing,
And the sheathing holds the shingles,
And the shingles stop the rain.

Hammerbeam roofs were developed in England in the 1300s, but not named such until the 1820s.  So just why are the short horizontal ties called hammerbeams ?  I mean, what’s so hammer-y about them ?  I suspect it was just to show that architects could be manly when talking about their erect members.