In 1855, while still continuing occasional field-work, he was put in charge of the publication of the records and results of the Coast Survey, in order to insure a steady progress in publication. This, together with miscellaneous field and scientific work, including a series of very elaborate experiments on the comparison of the standard bar of the base apparatus with the standard meter, occupied his time very closely up to the middle of the year 1860, when the necessary attention to his material interests led him to dissolve his official connection with the Coast Survey for a time, in order to engage in a prominent business enterprise at Paterson, New Jersey.