Ralph, I agree that the moniker is a bit unpicturesque. I generally would have called it a cupola. As Mr. Harris informed however, "they just vent the stink out."
Honored Sir:
J'agree, as our Francophone friends would say, that these are ventilators, but it doesn't strike me as an adequately descriptive term for such a (potentially) picturesque feature.
Ralph
Ralph,
I couldn't find Hamlin's work. But I called Stony Harris, in Cowtown, NJ, who has about a dozen of them on his various barns, and he calls them "ventilators".
Twybil
-- To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
http://listserv.icors.org/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html