(Wood Truss Council of America). They publish a "Wood Truss Handbook" which contains a history of that specific type of truss.
As for other types of trusses, their history goes back a long way, certainly to Mediaeval times, but I'm not sure whether there us a scholarly text on the subject.
Trussdoc's message was typed at the same time mine was; imagine my surprise when, after submitting my post, I saw that he'd said the same thing at the same time. Obviously, great minds think alike.
As for you, I *am* a Viking, not a fan of the football team, thank you very much. I don't live anywhere near Minnesota, either. As far as football is concerned, it's too wimpy; it should be played in the nude and to the death. Me, I'm into full-contact Scrabble.
With that utter nonsense out of the way, I wanted to let prichard know that I was looking through an interesting book last night, called "The Pageant of Medieval Art and Life" by Richard McLanathan. It's a fascinating book and has several good architectural drawings (rendered by an arctitect in 1966) of old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. What I noticed were what looked like king post trusses supporting the roof. Old St. Pete's predates Michaelangelo, by something like 1000 years. The book is out of print (I have a copy my mother bought probably in 1966) and I just checked the online booksellers - they're trying to get $50 for it...
