In the assays of certain complex alloys, and of low grades of gold and silver, he contrived various methods which are not in print, but which are of great use in the daily manipulations.
And here I may state that he not only introduced great accuracy and precision in the assays, but carried special investigations to a delicacy almost incredible. Thus, much interest was excited by a publication some years ago, both in this country and across the Atlantic, of his experiment upon the brick-clay which underlies our city. Taking two samples from the center of the town and the suburbs he found they contained gold at the rate of nearly 12 grains (say fifty cents) to the ton of clay in its ordinary moisture. Other experiments went to prove the very general diffusion of gold, in infinitesimal proportions.
Some analysts, through want of exactitude, or for the pleasure of making a sensation, may produce very curious results; but Mr. Eckfeldt was conscientious, I may say, nervously scrupulous, about stating anything he was not sure of. Partly for that reason, partly for the very love of work, he was laborious to a fault, all his life long.
United States Mint Officers.
| Washington, D. C., James P. Kimball, Director of the Mint | $4,500 |
| Philadelphia, Pa., Daniel M. Fox, Superintendent | 4,500 |
| Boise City, Idaho, Norman H. Camp | 2,000 |
| Carson City, Nevada, James Crawford, Superintendent | 3,000 |
| Charlotte, N. C., Calvin J. Cowles, Assayer | 1,500 |
| Denver, Colorado, Herman Silver, Assayer | 2,500 |
| Helena, Montana, Russell B. Harrison, Assayer | 2,500 |
| New Orleans, La., Andrew W. Smyth, Superintendent | 3,500 |
| New York, N. Y., Andrew Mason, Superintendent | 4,500 |
| San Francisco, Cal., Edw. F. Burton, Superintendent | 4,500 |
| St. Louis, Mo., Eliot C. Jewett, Assayer | 2,500 |
WILLIAM E. DU BOIS.
Extract from an obituary notice by Robert Patterson.
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, November 18, 1881.)
William Ewing Du Bois was born at Doylestown, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1810. Through his father, Rev. Uriah Du Bois, he was descended from Louis Du Bois, a French Huguenot of honorable extraction, who emigrated to America in 1660, seeking freedom of religious worship, and, in connection with others of his countrymen, formed the settlement of New Paltz, Ulster County, New York. Through his mother, Martha Patterson, daughter of Professor Robert Patterson, of the University of Pennsylvania, he inherited the Scotch-Irish element which has exerted so marked an influence in the development of our country.