Mcadam was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and then at Trinity College Dublin.
He had a private geological museum, which included specimens collected during excavations made during the construction of the Irish railways.
His younger brother was his business partner in the Soho Foundry in Townsend Street which they had established in 1846.
[1] At its height in the 1850s, the firm had a workforce of 250 and an international reputation for the production of turbine engines (horizontal water wheels developed in France by Benoît Fourneyron).
[2] Robert Shipboy MacAdam was an antiquary and leading Irish-language revivalist.