Abraham Lawrence Bogart
Biography
Born: November 20th, 1818
Died: August [6th], 1898
Abraham Lawrence Bogart was left an orphan at the age of thirteen, with two brothers to support. In the face of hardships, he began working for a dry goods house on Broadway, and later owned the business. He started to build smokestacks for locomotives and entered the gas business, introducing gas meters and gas stoves for heating and cooking.
In 1867 he entered the electrical business, designing gas lighting systems for churches and theatres, and had patented sixty inventions for electric gas lighting apparatuses. Bogart fiercely defended his patents and was very successful in patent litigation, often winning more money afterwards.
Bogart passed away during a bike ride with his son in 1898 and was survived by five children, three by his first wife and two by his second. Two of his sons, A. Livingston Bogart and Eugene E. Bogart worked with him in the electrical business, and continued his firm under the name A.L. Bogart.