he was perhaps the first scottish map-maker actively to use triangulation in his work. twelve manuscript maps survive from his work at this time, covering the lothians, stirling, fife, kinross and southern perthshire. unfortunately, financial and other difficulties hampered much of john adair's map making, and not only were very few of his maps engraved during his lifetime, but most of his manuscript maps were destroyed by fire in 1811. however, a few of his county maps were engraved and printed by richard cooper, the elder in the 1730s.