Alton D. (Alton Dermont) Adams

Born in Biddeford, Maine, on June 28, 1864, Alton Dermont Adams built his career around the fast-changing world of electrical engineering. A York County biographical sketch describes him as an electrical engineer and scientist, and notes that he worked as a consulting engineer in Worcester, Massachusetts, beginning in the mid-1890s.

Adams is best remembered as the author of Electric Transmission of Water Power, a technical study of how hydroelectric power could be generated and distributed efficiently. He also wrote for Scientific American, showing that he was engaged not only in engineering practice but also in explaining new technologies to a broader audience.

He died in 1943. While solid biographical details about his personal life are limited in the sources available here, the record that does survive points to a writer-engineer who helped document an important period in the growth of modern electric power systems.