William Alexander Adams

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William Alexander Adams (born August 26, 1821 in Quintero , Chile , † January 31, 1896 in Gaines , Herefordshire , England) was an English engineer and entrepreneur.

His parents were the publicist, engineer and entrepreneur William Bridges Adams and Elizabeth, b. Place.

In 1826 he returned to London with his father. When he was fifteen, he joined the wagon shop that his father and an uncle ran on Drury Lane; together they founded the Fairfield Works in the London borough of Bow in 1843.

In 1846 he took over the management of the London Works in Birmingham; In the same year he entered into a business relationship with George Allcock, but in 1850 went into business for himself. In 1853 he helped found the Midland Wagon Company, to which he sold his company and that of his then partner Henry Griffith in 1863 and joined its board of directors. At the same time he took over the management of Muntz's Metal Company. In 1874 he introduced a hire-purchase system for railroad cars in the USA, for the commercial implementation of which he founded the Union Rolling Stock Company in 1875.

He was also director of the Birmingham Joint Stock Bank for some time, as well as justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant for the county of Hereford.

Adams was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, to which he gave several lectures in 1850 and 1852, including on railway wagons, and, since January 10, 1865, of the Institution of Civil Engineers, to which he spoke in 1876 on "Railway Rolling Stock Capacity, in Relation to the Dead Weight of Vehicles «. His passion for hunting was also reflected in two publications.

Works

  • Railway Rolling Stock Capacity, in Relation to the Dead Weight of Vehicles , in: Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 96 (1876), p. 100
  • Twenty-six Years' Reminiscences of Scotch Grouse Moors . The illustrations drawn by C. Whymper. London: Horace Cox, 1889 (Halkirk reprinted: Deer Valley Publishing 1988)
  • Bores and Loads for Sporting Guns for British game shooting . London: Horace Cox, 1894

literature

  • (Obituary) William Alexander Adams , in: Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 124 (1895/1896) Part II p. 436f.