gineers and on July 30, when he was twenty years of age, he was appointed 

 third assistant engineer in the navy and was ordered at once to join the fleet 

 on the Pacific coast. 



On July 10, 1864, Mr. Eckart resigned from the navy on account of 

 poor health and went to San Francisco where he began work in the drawing 

 room of H. J. Booth & Company ; there he made the design and drawings for 

 the first California built locomotive. He remained with this company until 

 1869, when he received an appointment as draughtsman in the steam en- 

 gineering department at Mare Island Navy Yard. He was soon after made 

 foreman machinist and later was promoted to superintendent of steam ma- 

 chinery through B. F. Isherwood, and while in this position he carried out 

 under him a series of experiments on propeller efficiency that attracted con- 

 siderable attention both in the United States and Great Britain. 



In 1871 he left the Mare Island Navy Yard to go into partnership with 

 Prescott and Schiedel at the Marysville Foundry; the firm name was later 

 changed to Booth and Eckart. While there he contracted for and built the 

 Steamer Meteor for the Carson Lumber Company; she had a guaranteed 

 speed of 21 miles per hour, which she easily made on Lake Tahoe where she 

 was used, and was probably the fastest boat of her size known at that date. 



In 1876 he was recalled to San Francisco by Prescott, Scott and Com- 

 pany, successors to H. J. Booth & Company, to superintend the construction 

 and assist in designing and erecting some heavy pumping machinery for the 

 Comstock mines; soon after this he moved to Virginia City to become con- 

 sulting engineer to the Bonanza firm that owned or controlled nearly all of 

 the "North End" mines. In 1878 he was appointed U. S. Deputy Mineral 

 Surveyor for the State of Nevada. While at Virginia City he designed and 

 built, in connection with W. I. Sakeld, a noted millwright of that time, the 

 Bullwer Standard Mill at Bodie, the largest pan mill for working ore that 

 had been built up to that time. 



In 1880 he was appointed a member of the U. S. Geological Sui-vey under 

 Clarence King to investigate and report upon the mechanical appliances of 

 the Comstock lode. On this work, which was really a labor of love, he spent 

 nearly two years collecting data, testing pumps, engines and hoists, and making 

 drawings for the Government of all the machinery on the Comstock. The 

 finest instruments procurable in the United States and Europe were used in 

 this work. 



In 1882 Mr. Eckart returned to San Francisco as a consulting and con- 

 structing engineer, and during the following eight or ten years some of the 

 largest and most important mining plants were designed and constructed un- 

 der his supervision. 



