Background
Isaac Adams was born on August 16, 1802 at Adams Corner, Rochester, New Hampshire, United States, the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Horne) Adams.
Isaac Adams was born on August 16, 1802 at Adams Corner, Rochester, New Hampshire, United States, the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Horne) Adams.
Adams' parents were poor and his chances of education were slight.
Adams' first work was in a cotton factory, and it is probable that the machinery in this mill gave him ideas which were later to prove of value in his inventions.
At the age of eighteen he went to Sandwich, New Hampshire, where he learned the trade of cabinet making. After a few years he went to Dover, where he remained until 1824, when he found work in a machine shop in Boston.
Three years later he invented the famous printing-press which was to carry his name to every country where printing was carried on. With his brother, Seth Adams, he formed the firm of I & S. Adams in 1836.
Upon leaving Sandwich he had said that he would not return until he had money enough to buy the town, and he kept his word. When he ultimately retired from business he had a fortune variously estimated as from one to two millions. He bought up many farms and planted them with white pines.
The press of Isaac Adams went a long way toward developing the mechanical side of the art of printing. The first ones had a wooden frame, but iron was later substituted. These presses would print sheets thirty by forty inches, printing this, then relatively large, surface beautifully at considerable speed. They sounded the death-knell of the hand press.
Adams was married to Mary Clendenin. They had two children.