William Bridges Adams was an author, inventor, and locomotive engineer. He was best known for his patented Adams Axle, that was a successful radial axle design in use on railways in Britain until 1968. He also patented an improved carriage spring, which was called the bow springs. whose manufacture of these proved very profitable. In 1842 his factory moved from its previous small premises in Soho to three acres of land adjoining the Eastern Counties Railway at Fair Field, Bow. The company was now trading as Adams & Co Fairfield Locomotive Works Bow, East London, in 1843 he specialized in the design of light engines, steam railcars and inspection trolleys. These were sold in small numbers to railways all over Britain and Ireland, including the Fairfield steam carriage for the broad-gauge Bristol and Exeter Railway and the Enfield for the Eastern Counties Railway, with its headquarters nearby at Stratford. He went on to invent the first railway fishplate, in the form of an unbolted wedge between adjoining chairs which he patented in 1847. Adams also invented the improved railway carriage and the improved 0mnibus. The engineering business failed some years later, although by this time Adams had expanded his interests to include clothing design and journalism.
