EGLESTON, Thomas, engineer of mines, born in New York City, 9 December 1832. He was graduated at Yale in 1854, and at the Ecole des mines, in Paris, in 1860, and in 1861'4 had charge of the collections of mineral and metallurgical products in the Smithsonian institution. In 1863 he published a plan for a school of mines, which resulted in the establishment of the present institution connected with Columbia College. Charles F. Chandler and Francis L. Vinton joined Mr. Egleston, and the school was developed under their joint supervision. He became professor of mineralogy and metallurgy there in 1864, and has since continued to hold that chair.

Professor Egleston was commissioner to make the geological survey of the Union Pacific railroad in 1866, commissioner to examine fortifications in 1868, and mint commissioner in 1870, 1878, and 1885. He has frequently been called in consultation as an expert on metallurgical subjects, and his opinion has been sought extensively throughout the United States as an expert in mining, on important points of furnace construction, the treatment of ores, and similar topics. In 1.874 he received the degree of Ph. D. from Princeton and LL.D. from Trinity. Professor Egleston is a member of numerous scientific societies, was vice president of the New York academy of sciences for many years, and has been president of the American institute of mining engineers. He has taken out various metallurgical patents, and has written about a hundred papers on subjects connected with his specialties. He has published "Tables for the Determinations of Minerals" (New York, 1867); "Metallurgical Tables on Copper, Lead, Silver, Gold, and other Metals " (1868);" Tables of Weights, Measures, and Coins of the United States and France" (1868); "Metallurgical Tables on Fuels, Iron, and Steel" (1869); "Lectures on Mineralogy" (1871); and "The Metallurgy of Gold, Silver, and Mercury in the United States" (1887)