Adams Company

The Roberts & Langworthy Iron Works, located at 57 South Main Street in Dubuque, were manufacturers of "fine light castings"[2] like grave crosses and park benches.

The plant burnt down the same year in a disastrous fire, and the company opened new facilities at East Fourth Street.

Now, machine castings and household devices like a patented floor heating vent with inner rotating portion that distributed warm air in upper level rooms, or laundry stoves were added.

This proved impractical, so his second car, appropriately named number 2, had the engine installed in the rear as all Adams-Farwells would thereafter.

[4] An Automobile Quarterly article credits Mr. Farwell's inspiration for his rotary radial engine to have been a steam winch he had witnessed in operation in the late 19th century.

His bench seat in the front of the car was retractable and could fold away in inclement weather, thus forming a splash board.

Then, the tiller and driving devices could easily be relocated in front of the rear seat, under the fixed top.

These cars could even be started from the driver's seat as they provided a lever that had to be pulled up instead of the usual crank.

The car got a somewhat longer wheelbase, and a Landaulet body style replaced the Brougham, probably very similar but with a convertible rear part of the top.

One was an Extension Brougham with a longer wheelbase, the other, the Model 7-A, was a 7-passenger touring with a conventional looking front; the engine still was in the rear.

Called the Model 8-A Gentleman's Speed Roadster, it had the shortest chassis with 86 in (2,200 mm), and the larger engine.

As period advertisements indicate complete cars were offered, there is some evidence they might have built the bulk of the Adam-Farwell bodies.

This car was invited to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 2011 where it won the Charles A. Chayne Trophy for the most advanced technology of its period.

[9][12][14] Like another builder of rotary engined road vehicles, Stephen Marius Balzer of New York City, the Adams Company offered light gyrocopter engines which successfully powered experimental flying machines by Emile Berliner in 1909–1910 and J. Newton Williams in 1909.

The Adams Company then relied on their iron foundry and manufactured gears, shafts and parts for power transmissions.