wen 
Dubois.] 550 [Uet. 4. 
First, he was not ready in the use of language. There was wealth of 
thought, but not freedom of expression. This was always to some extent 
his embarrassment. If, with his stores of general and scientific know- 
ledge, he had also possessed the powers of a speaker or writer, he would 
have made a larger impression. And yet he was communicative and 
sociable habitually. In his daily rides in the car, part-way to his house in 
the country, he was glad to find those with whom he could converse along 
the road. This is only an instance of his social temper, at home and 
abroad. 
Again, it cannot be said that he made what might be considered in- 
ventions or discoveries of new processes. Inventors are really few; and 
they are generally much indebted to those who come after them and im- 
prove upon them. And yet his skill and success as an Assayer and 
Analyst largely consisted in his power of finding out what was defective 
or erroneous, and in applying the proper remedy. It often seemed that 
what was a puzzle to others was to him a matter of quick insight. 
* 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. This was partly to be credited to the progressive im- 
provement in assay balances, by which, after discarding the old silken 
cords, we had Deleuil’s beam with steel stirrups; then Saxton’s palladium 
beam with drop supports, then the more sensitive and more complicated 
Oertling, and at last the simple and complete Becker. So that, instead 
of weighing to a thousandth of the normal weight as formerly, we now 
have indications to the tenth of a thousandth, or even less. 
If, therefore, curiosity or the promotion of science led him to inquire 
how much or rather how little silver there was in a certain kind of lead 
or gold in an ordinary brick or pile of gravel, he would begin with a 
pretty large sample, then carefully concentrate the precious metals, if 
any, and finally bring his visible speck to the balance, to determine a 
proportion in millionth parts. Only lately he found in a bar of Spanish 
lead, which is remarkably free from silver, the amount of one-third of an 
ounce of silver, in a ton of lead,—and 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 any- 
thing he was not sure of. Partly for that reason, partly for the very love 
