Bogardus, James

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Bogardus, James (1800–74). American inventor, designer, engineer, and industrialist. In 1847 he exhibited a model of a prefabricated iron factory, and was commissioned (1848) to make an ornamental five-storey iron façade for Dr John Milhau's (1785–1874) drug-store on Broadway, NYC, the first of several other fronts, which had a profound influence on the development of cast-iron construction, prefabricated cast-iron structural frames, and kits-of-parts that could be quickly assembled on site. He proposed an exhibition-house for the 1853 New York Exposition which was to have had a roof suspended from a central tower. He published Cast Iron Buildings: Their Construction and Advantages (1856, revised 1858). Regrettably, most of his work has been destroyed, but a few buildings survive: two in Manhattan and one in Cooperstown, NY.

Bibliography

Benevolo (1971);
Bogardus (1856);
Condit (1968);
Gayle & and Gillon (1974)

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James Bogardus

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