he first came to public notice in 1683, with a prospectus published in edinburgh for a "scottish atlas" stating that the privy council of scotland had engaged adair, a "mathematician and skilfull (sic) mechanic", to survey the shires of scotland. he surveyed the coast of scotland from 1686, and was made a fellow of the royal society in 1688. the only part of the coastal survey appeared in 1703.