Also known as Adams' Equivalent Pseudocylindrical Projection, this pseudocylindrical projection is also gentler than the Sinusoidal, although it does come to a point at the poles:
However, its main claim to fame is not simply any characteristics it may have as a projection in itself. Instead, this projection works well in combination with other projections.
This projection is also known as the Quartic Authalic Projection. This name was given to it by Karl Siemon, who invented it in 1937; Oscar S. Adams only independently re-invented it in 1944. Thus, although I first learned of it from Elements of Map Projection with Applications to Map and Chart Construction by Charles H. Deetz and Oscar S. Adams, and thus knew of it as Adams' Equal-Area Projection, it is hardly surprising that G.Projector, for example, refers to this projection as the Quartic Authalic Projection.
Of course, it can be interrupted, like other pseudocylindrical projections. Note that I have chosen to have the same standard meridians in the northern and southern hemispheres. This projection is designed so that the positions of the parallels are the same as those in the equatorial case of Lambert's Azimuthal Equal-Area projection.
That means that the interrupted projection can be cut at the standard parallels it uses, and either part of a hemisphere on Lambert's projection or part of the world on the Hammer-Aitoff projection can be joined to it, as shown below:
which produces an effect somewhat similar to that of the Oxford projection, although this projection is completely equal-area, whereas notes in the Oxford atlases where I saw that projection stated that it was only approximately equal area.
Incidentally, I've learned that this projection is somewhat obscure. I have found where I likely saw it originally described: on page 207 in the 5th Edition (1944) of Elements of Map Projection with Applications to Map and Chart Construction by Charles H. Deetz and Oscar S. Adams. (The word "Projection" was in the singular on the 4th and 5th editions, but in the plural on the 1st edition.)
As it was actually used, the Oxford projection looked something like this:
thus, it showed the major continental areas very efficiently, with a chunk of the Atlantic Ocean (and, for that matter, much of the Pacific) omitted.
Both the Oxford projection, used for statistical and economic maps in the back of their atlases starting in 1951, and the Modified Gall projection which they often used for a map of world time zones, were devised by one Brigadier Guy Bomford, who was well-known for his accomplishments in geodesy.
However, when I recently attempted to make a close approximation of the Oxford projection at a larger scale,
I noticed some discrepancies which indicated that I didn't have the right idea of how the projection worked.
New Zealand should have required a little extension of the projection in order not to be cut off, but instead it's well clear of the bottom of the projection. That, in itself, could simply mean that I was wrong in thinking the Hammer projection was used on the right side of the Oxford projection; the Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area could have been used on that side as well.
However, there were also discrepancies on the left side of the map - the coast of California is too far west of the coast of Peru - which suggest that the Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection isn't quite what was used on the left side.
I have now taken a closer look at the actual Oxford projection. There is a difference between the left and right sides, which is what suggested to me the use of the Hammer projection for the right side, but it's of considerably different nature than what I had thought.
It appears that on the left side, the Quartic Authalic projection extends for ten degrees west of its central meridian of 10 degrees West, and on the right side, the Quartic Authalic projection there extends for forty degrees east of its central meridian of 40 degrees East. Then, apparently on both sides the Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection is sheared along a curved line to join up with the Quartic Authalic projection. This is not the sort of thing that tends to occur to me.