James Bogardus

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James Bogardus, architect and inventor

James Bogardus (born March 14, 1800 in Catskill , New York , † April 13, 1874 in New York City ) was an American inventor , architect and an important representative of American cast iron architecture .

Career

Bogardu's parents owned a farm near Catskill, where he went to school until he began an apprenticeship with a watchmaker at the age of 14 . In 1820 he went to Savannah (Georgia) for three years to learn the engraving trade. When he returned to Catskill in 1823, he opened his own watchmaker and engraving shop there.

Inventions

James Bogardus's building at 254 Canal Street , New York City was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Before James Bogardus turned more to architecture , he made a name for himself as an inventor. First with an eight-day, three-wheel chronometer , with which he won the highest award at the First Fair of the American Institute of the City of New York . He then moved to New York City, where he lived until his death and made a good living from his inventions.

In 1828 he invented the "ring flyer" or "ring spinner", a cotton spinning machine that was later in common use. A little later he developed an eccentric grinding machine in which the grinding stones or grinding plates for the first time rotated in the same direction at almost the same speed. This principle is still used today for the fine-tuning of lenses or ball bearings .

In 1831 he married Margaret McClay. The marriage remained childless. In the same year he built an engraving machine that could create the dials of gold watches in one operation - including filigree work, rays from the center of the dial and the numerals. This machine also made dies, such as the lower die used to mark the gold medal of the American Institute of the City of New York. He also invented a machine with which the printing block for banknote printing could be made from different printing plates.

In 1832 he patented the first dry gas meter, for which he received the gold medal of the American Institute of the City of New York.

In 1836 Bogardus went to England to apply for a patent and got to know cast iron as a building material . During this stay in England in 1836 he built a metal engraving machine with which portraits of Queen Victoria , Sir Robert Peel and other personalities were made. He also constructed a machine in London with which all machine-made engravings could be copied, but the machine was not able to copy work that was made with this machine.

In 1838 the British government announced an award for the best plan for making postage stamps . James Bogardus' proposal prevailed against 2,600 competitors. The proposed principle is still in use today.

In addition to various other inventions, he patented a deep-sea measuring machine , a dynamometer for measuring the speed and strength of machines (1848) and a precise pyrometer .

Buildings and architecture

The "75 Murray Street" building, New York City, was designed and constructed in 1858 by James Bogardus.

On a trip to Italy in 1840, Bogardus realized that cast iron would be an ideal building material for making decorations for building facades. When he returned to New York City, he had made the decision to build entire buildings out of cast iron - including the walls, roofs, floors, etc. While New York City had facades made of cast iron since the 1820s, Bogardus was that first to realize that cast iron is so strong, durable, light and fireproof that it is a suitable building material for all elements of a building in cities. He saw a particular advantage in the fact that practically any shape and size can be made from cast iron. This opened up new possibilities in terms of mass production of prefabricated components that could be quickly assembled on site. This made it possible to produce buildings with ornamentation at lower costs.

When James Bogardus built his five-story factory in New York City in 1848, he only used components made of cast iron. It was the first building in the United States to be constructed this way. This was the beginning of the cast iron skeleton construction. The previously bricked outer walls were replaced by iron pillars that served as supports for the upper floors of a building. Even during the construction, the building project was ridiculed, as contemporaries were of the opinion that the building would either collapse under its own weight or would be destroyed by lightning. But as the finished building became an eye-catcher, the mockery finally turned into attention and orders for buildings made of cast iron construction began to be received by Bogardus - mainly from New York City, but also from Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC, and Baltimore Chicago. Now James Bogardus was able to concentrate in particular on the construction of buildings with cast iron skeleton structures. According to the New York Herald of April 14, 1874, Bogardus transported the finished components for a huge building to Cuba.

In 1850 he applied for a patent for his extended use of cast iron as a building material. In the following two decades he showed how cast iron can be used in the construction of building facades. The success of the cast-iron facade design between 1850 and 1880 led to the use of steel frame construction in entire buildings such as offices, department stores and warehouses.

Bogardus put up signs on the buildings he built that read: " James Bogardus Originator & Patentee of Iron Buildings Pat 'May 7, 1850 " (translated: "James Bogardus inventor and holder of the patent for iron buildings from May 7, 1850" )

Bogardus built in New York City and some fire-watch towers made of cast iron and so-called "shot towers" ( Schrotturm ) in which balls or shot were made for firearms by molten lead of about 30 meters above sea level in a basin with cold water let drip. Since the tallest of these buildings was more than 60 meters high, these buildings are seen by architectural historians as the forerunners of modern skyscrapers.

The following buildings by James Bogardus have survived to this day in New York City: 63 Nassau Street, 254 Canal Street, 75 Murray Street, 85 Leonard Street, Iron Clad Building, Cooperstown , New York (92 Main St, Cooperstown, NY).

Although Bogardus was an important personality at the time who drew attention to himself through many innovations and inventions, today he has been forgotten, especially in Europe. In New York City, a small park in Tribeca commemorates him: James Bogardus Triangle . It's located at the point where Chambers Street, Hudson Street and West Broadway meet.

literature

  • Eva Bambach-Horst, Friederike Kitschen, Norbert Wolf, Christoph Award: The Brockhaus Art: artists, epochs, technical terms. 3rd, updated u. revised Edition. Brockhaus, Mannheim / Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-7653-2773-5 .
  • Charles W. Carey: American Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Business Visionaries: A Biographical Dictionary (American Biographies). Facts On File Inc., 2002, ISBN 0-8160-4559-3 .
  • Sigfried Giedion: Space, time, architecture: the emergence of a new tradition. Birkhäuser Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-7643-5407-0 .
  • Margot Gayle, Carol Gayle: Cast-Iron Architecture in America: The Significance of James Bogardus. Norton, New York 1998.
  • Cynthia Hammett Shirey: James Bogardus and cast iron building in New York City. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1966.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Charles W. Carey: American Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Business Visionaries: A Biographical Dictionary (American Biographies). Facts On File Inc., 2002, ISBN 0-8160-4559-3 .
  2. ^ Sigfried Giedion: space, time, architecture: the emergence of a new tradition. Birkhäuser Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-7643-5407-0 .
  3. ↑ Christopher Gray: Streetscapes / 75 Murray Street; Bought for Its Site, the Rundown Loft Is a Gem. New York Times , October 30, 1994, accessed December 18, 2010 .
  4. ↑ James Bogardus: The Inventor's Triangleby Dorothy Spears01 / 02/200212 W Broadway, New York, NY
personal data
SURNAME Bogardus, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American inventor, architect
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH Catskill , New York
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1874
Place of death New York City