July 9, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



4& 



He was bom January 29, 1841, in Bruns- 

 wick, Germany, and beginning his education 

 in the public schools and gymnasiums of his 

 native city, he came to the United States at 

 an early age and completed his training as 

 civil engineer under private instruction in 

 St. Louis. His first professional experience 

 was in connection with the building of the 

 Eads bridge at St. Louis, and in the offices of 

 the St. Louis City and County Engineers. 

 Later for two years he was professor of me- 

 chanics and civil engineering in Washington 

 University. 



In 1869 Professor J. E. Hilgard, the assist- 

 ant in charge of the Coast Survey and later 

 its superintendent, had organized a series of 

 parties to observe the solar eclipse of August 

 7 of that year. Mr. Eimbeck was an enthu- 

 siastic volunteer observer and was assigned to 

 the party of Julius Pitzman, county engineer 

 of St. Louis, and stationed near Mitchell, 111. 

 After the eclipse he took part in the deter- 

 mination of the latitude and longitude of St. 

 Louis, and the connection of the various eclipse 

 stations in Missouri and Illinois with this 

 base station. His enthusiasm and success in 

 this work led to his selection as an observer 

 in the expedition organized by Professor Ben- 

 jamin Peirce, then superintendent of the 

 .Coast Survey, to go to southern Europe to 

 observe the solar eclipse of December 22, 1870. 

 Mr. Eimbeck was assigned to the party of 

 Professor C. H. F. Peters, the distinguished 

 astronomer, with whom he observed the eclipse 

 on Monte Rosso near Catania in Sicily. His 

 ability, acquirements and enthusiasm dis- 

 played on these two expeditions led to his 

 appointment on the Coast Survey, July 1, 

 1871, and his connection with it continued for 

 thirty-five years. 



His first assignment was to one of the tri- 

 angulation parties on the survey along the 

 thirty-ninth parallel of latitude which was 

 operating in Missouri, extending the work 

 westward from the base in the Great Amer- 

 ican Bottom opposite St. Louis; and later he 

 was engaged in astronomical duties in con- 

 nection with determination of latitudes, longi- 



tudes and azimuths in Kansas, Texas and 

 Louisiana. 



In 1872 he was assigned to the Pacific coast 

 and for five years was engaged in astronomical 

 and primary triangulation work along that 

 coast from Oregon to the entrance of the Gulf 

 of California; one of his undertakings being 

 a determination of the geographical coordi- 

 nates and magnetic elements at thirteen sta- 

 tions between San Diego and Cape San Lucas 

 for the control of the survey of the coast and 

 Lower California then in process of execution 

 by the Navy Department. In 1872 in the 

 superintendent's report is an evidence of the 

 thorough spirit in which he entered, upon se- 

 curing a thorough command of all the details 

 of the scientific operations upon which he was 

 engaged, this being shown by his paper sug- 

 gesting improvements in the Hipp chrono- 

 graph then used in connection with the tele- 

 graphic longitude operations. ' 



In 1877 he returned to the eastern coast, 

 where he was assigned to an extensive as- 

 tronomical and magnetic campaign for deter- 

 mination of latitudes, longitudes and the 

 magnetic elements in Kentucky, Illinois, Ten- 

 nessee, South Carolina and Georgia, and later, 

 after making the necessary preparations, in 

 1878 he was again assigned to the western 

 coast and began at Pah Rah in Nevada the 

 extension of the primary work eastward from 

 the coast triangulation, which was to follow 

 approximately the thirty-ninth parallel of lati- 

 tude to the capes of Delaware. This was the 

 inception of what was to be the main life 

 work of Mr. Eimbeck and to which for eight- 

 een years he gave all that was best in both 

 mind and body. Stretching from the Sierra 

 Nevadas to Pikes Peak and the east line of 

 the Rocky Mountains, and including in its 

 list of occupied stations mountain peaks reach- 

 ing an elevation of 14,400 feet, in regions 

 where supplies had to be carried for hundreds 

 of miles through desertS and wastes, destitute 

 of roads and almost destitute even of water; 

 the successful conduct of this work called for 

 the endurance of the most rugged of pioneers, 

 the undaunted courage of the explorer, while 

 the operations represent the highest type of 



