600 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



poor unfinished skeleton was christened Eogardus's folly — not 

 knowing that, in the interval, he had commenced and finished the 

 fronts of several stores, on the same pattern, at the corner of 

 Washington and Murray streets. 



It may be also added, that complaints were made to the City 

 Authorities against it, and that some of the tenants of neighboring 

 buildings left their houses through fear of danger : this created 

 some delay, until informed by the chief engineer of the fire de- 

 partment, tliat the committee had made a favorable report. 



This first cast-iron building, Mr. Eogardus's present factory, is 

 of five stories, and was designed to be a model of its kind. Since 

 its erection, it has not been difl&cult to convince any one who will 

 take the trouble to examine it, that such buildings combine un- 

 equalled ADVANTAGES OF ORNAMENT, STRENGTH, DURABILITY, AND 

 economy; whilst they are, at the SAME TIME, ABSOLUTELY 

 SECURE AGAINST DANGER FROM FIRE, LIGHTNING, AND AN IMPERFECT 

 FOUNDATION. 



Whatever be the advantages of cast-iron as a building material, 

 they would be all unavailable, were they not accompanied with 

 stability of structure. But, simple as this problem now appears 

 to be, had it not been hitherto esteemed impracticable, it would 

 not have been left for Mr. Bogardus to solve it. As it is on this 

 point, mainly, that his merits as its inventor depends, a short 

 description is subjoined; and the reader should remember, that 

 the greater the simplicity of an invention, it is the more merito- 

 rious. 



The cast-iron frame of the building rests upon sills which are 

 cast in sections of any required length. These sills, by the aid of 

 the planing machine, are made of equal thickness, so as not to 

 admit of any vai'iation tliroughout the whole : they are laid upon 

 a stone foundation, and are fastened together with bolts. On the 

 joints of the sills stand the columns or pilasters, all exactly equal 

 in height, and having both their ends faced in a turning lathe so 

 as to make them perfectly plane and parallel; and each column 

 is firmly bolted to the ends of the two adjacent sills on which it 

 rests. These columns support another series of sills, fascias, or 

 cornices, in sections, of the same length as the former, but of 

 greater height according to the design of the architect: they are 

 separately made of equal dimensions by the planing machine, and 

 are bolted to the columns, and to each other, in the same manner 

 as before. On tliese again stands another row of columns, and on 

 these columns rests another series of fascias or cornices ; and so 



