WILLIAM LIMBECK. 
1841-1909. 
( Read before the Society May 22, 1909. ) 
Mr. William Eimbeck, the subject of this sketch, and 
myself were close friends for many years. His ambitions 
were well known to me, and I am very well aware that his 
failure to attain the final success he had hoped for was due 
to an organic disease which slowly crept upon him during 
the later years of his life. 
He was born January 29, 1841, in Brunswick, Germany, 
and, beginning his education in the public schools and gym- 
nasiums 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 Pro- 
fessor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering in Washington 
University. 
In 1869 Prof. J. E. Llilgard, the Assistant 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 enthusiastic volunteer 
observer and was assigned to the party of Julius Pitzman, 
county engineer of St. Louis, and stationed near Mitchell, 
Illinois. After the eclipse he took part in the determination 
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 organ- 
ized by Prof. Benjamin Peirce, then Superintendent of the 
19— Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 15. (127) 
