John Adair (surveyor)
John Adair FRS (1660–1718) was a Scottish surveyor and cartographer, noted for the excellence of his maps. 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. Only the first part of the coastal survey appeared, in 1703. He was perhaps the first Scottish map-maker actively to use triangulation in his work.