Brian Warren Adams

1924-2005. Brian Adams was the professional mathematician with Hydrographic Department from 1945, retiring in 1980 as a Principal Civil Hydrographic Officer with the organisation's Whitehall unit. His later researches made him the authority on the mathematical basis of Ordnance Survey mapping - he immersed himself in the literature recording the various projections reportedly used over the years, and resolved by computation some doubtful cases of what could have been used and what could not. He ascertained the number of national and county origins used in mapping both Great Britain and Ireland, and where necessary recomputed their co-ordinate values. He also left partly completed work on the mathematical basis of one-inch Old Series mapping and the large scale town plans.

This archive contains two overlapping bodies of material, reflecting Adams's work with Hydrographic Department (1945-80) - departmental working papers, and printed works he acquired during those years, including his collection of Hydrographic Department Professional Papers; then as a private researcher into Ordnance Survey mapping (1980-2005) - his collection of source books (a mixture of original volumes dating back to 1858 and photocopies) that supported his research, as well as what survives of his research papers. Most of the work he completed, both published and unpublished, has been gathered together in the volume Projections and Origins, a copy of which is held in the Charles Close Society collection. Fundamental to all this are Adams's private note books containing his "computations". Some material is held on other subjects which interested him, both original and in photocopy, such as lettering styles of the Ordnance Survey, meridian marks, administrative areas, and unpublished Ordnance Survey of Ireland papers relevant to the abortive 1:20,000 map of Ireland in the 1930s. His important collection of railway system diagrams and papers relevant to his railway interests are held by the Map Department of Cambridge University Library.