Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/111



ADAMS, GEORGE, the elder (d. 1773), mathematical instrument maker to George III, obtained a world-wide reputation as a maker of celestial and terrestrial globes, and his ‘treatise describing and explaining the construction and use of new celestial and terrestrial globes’ passed through thirty editions. The book first appeared in 1766, and its dedication to the king has been attributed to Dr. Johnson. The thirtieth edition was issued in 1810, with a preface and additions by Adams's younger son Dudley. Adams was also the author of: 1. ‘Micrographia Illustrata, or the knowledge of the microscope explained’ (1746), which included ‘a translation of Mr. Joblott's observations on animalculæ,’ and passed through four editions between its date of publication and 1771. 2. ‘The Description and Use of a new Sea-quadrant for taking the altitude of the sun from the visible horizon’ (1748). 3. ‘The Description and Use of the Universal Trigonometrical Octant, invented and applied to Hadley's Quadrant’ (1753). Adams died in 1773, according to the statement of his second son, Dudley Adams, in his preface to the thirtieth edition of his work on the globes, and not in 1786 as previous biographers have stated.

[Dudley Adams's edition of the Treatise on the Globes (1810); A. de Morgan in S.D.U.K. Biog. Dict.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]  ADAMS, GEORGE, the younger (1750–1795), was the son of George Adams [q. v.], the mathematical instrument maker to George III, and succeeded his father in that office and in the superintendence of his business. He was the author of a large number of elementary scientific works, which, according to a writer in the ‘British Critic,’ were so planned as ‘to comprise a regular and systematic instruction in the most important branches of natural science with all its modern improvements.’ He also wrote largely on the use of mathematical instruments, and his books on that subject were highly valued. In politics he was a staunch tory, and as such was received with favour at court by George III. In many of his published works he combined a religious with a scientific aim, and ‘applied all his knowledge,’ says the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ ‘to the best of purposes—to combat the growing errors of materialism, infidelity, and anarchy.’ He died 14 Aug. 1795, at Southampton, and was succeeded in his business and in the post of mathematical instrument maker to the king by his brother, Dudley Adams. His works are: 1. ‘An Essay on Electricity, to which is added an Essay on Magnetism’ (1784). 2. ‘Essays on the Microscope’ (1787). 3. ‘An Essay on Vision, briefly explaining the fabric of the eye’ (1789). 4. ‘Astronomical and Geographical Essays’ (1790). 5. ‘A Short Dissertation on the Barometer’ (1790). 6. ‘Geometrical and Graphical Essays, containing a description of the mathematical instruments used in geometry, civil and military surveying, levelling and perspective’ (1790). 7. ‘Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy,’ in five volumes (1794). To many of Adams's books elaborate plates were published separately, and almost all of them passed through more than one edition.

[Gent. Mag. lxv. 708; A. de Morgan in S.D.U.K. Biog. Dict.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]  ADAMS, JAMES (1737–1802), philologist, entered the Society of Jesus at Watten, and afterwards became professor of languages at the college of St. Omer. He left for Edinburgh on the breaking out of the French revolution. After serving as a missionary for many years he died at Dublin, 7 Dec. 1802. He had it in contemplation to publish his ‘Tour through the Hebrides,’ being much disgusted with the work of that ‘ungrateful depreciating cynic, Dr. Johnson.’ His work on the ‘Pronunciation of the English Language’ contains, according to Park, ‘many ingenious remarks on languages and dialects, though the style of the writer is characterised by much whimsical eccentricity.’ He was the author of the following works: 1. ‘Early Rules for taking a Likeness’ (from the French of Bonamici), 8vo, 1792. 2. ‘Oratio Academica, Anglice et Latine conscripta,’ 8vo, 1793. 3. ‘Euphonologia Linguæ Anglicanæ, Latine et Gallice scripta,’ 1794, 8vo. 4. ‘The Pronunciation of the English Language vindicated from imputed Anomaly and Caprice, in two parts, with an Appendix on the Dialects of Human Speech in all Countries, and an Analytical Discussion and Vindication of the Dialect of Scotland’ (Edinb. 1799, 8vo). 5. ‘Rule Britannia, or the Flattery of Free Subjects paraphrased and expounded,’ 8vo, 1768. 6. ‘A Sermon preached at the Catholic Chapel of St. Patrick, Soho Square, March 7, the day of public fast,’ 8vo, 1798.

[Oliver's Collectanea S. J., 41; Foley's Records, vii. 3; Lowndes's Bibl. Man.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]  ADAMS, JOHN (fl. 1680), topographer, was a barrister of the Inner Temple. In 1677 he engraved on copper a map of England and Wales ‘full six feet square,’ the special feature of which was that the distance of each town from its nearest neighbours was ‘entred Rh