Hiram Stevens Maxim

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim

(born Feb. 5, 1840, Sangerville, Maine, U.S. — died Nov. 24, 1916, London, Eng.) U.S.-British inventor. Son of a Maine farmer, he was apprenticed to a carriage maker. He became chief engineer of the U.S. Electric Lighting Co. (1878 – 81), for which he introduced carbon filaments for electric lightbulbs. At his lab in London he began working on a fully automatic machine gun; in 1884 he succeeded with a design that used the recoil of the barrel to eject the spent cartridges and reload the chamber. He also developed his own smokeless gunpowder, cordite. Soon every army was equipped with Maxim guns or adaptations. His other inventions included a hair-curling iron, a pneumatic gun, and an airplane (1894). His Maxim Gun Co. was eventually absorbed into Vickers, Ltd. His son Hiram Percy (1869 – 1936) invented the Maxim silencer for rifles, which he adapted to mufflers and other technologies, and designed the Columbia electric automobile.

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Military History Companion: Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim

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Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens (1840-1916), inventor of the world's most successful machine gun. Born in the USA of Huguenot stock, Maxim was self-educated and had already invented a mousetrap and the world's first automatic fire-sprinkler when, on a business trip to Europe, he was advised by a fellow-countryman: ‘If you really want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each other's throats with greater facility.’ A sore shoulder after firing a rifle suggested to him that recoil could be put to profitable use, and in 1883-4 he developed a rifle which used the recoil to eject the spent round and chamber a new one. A recoil-operated, belt-fed machine gun with a rate of fire of 600-700 rounds per minute soon followed, and Maxim dealt with the problem of the barrel overheating during sustained firing by surrounding it with a water-filled jacket. The Maxim's reliability and durability commended it to a score of armies. First used, by the British, in the Matabele war of 1893, it was adopted by every major power around the turn of the century. There were national variations, such as the British Vickers-Maxim and the Russian sledge-Maxim, so-called from its sledge-like mounting. Although most of his weapons took rifle-calibre ammunition, a 37 mm version fired shells whose distinctive explosions earned it the name ‘pom-pom’. Maxim died, loaded with cash and honours, as his inventions cut a swathe through European manhood.

— Richard Holmes

US Military History Companion: Hiram Maxim

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(1840–1916), self‐taught engineer and inventor of the first automatic machine gun

Born in Maine, Maxim's early work focused on electrical design and the incandescent light bulb. In the early 1880s, he moved to London as representative of the U.S. Electric Lighting Company. As a sideline, he experimented with early machine guns. In 1885, Maxim developed a single‐barrel weapon that could fire 500 rounds of ammunition a minute. Although not the first machine gun, the Maxim gun, as it was called, remained vastly superior to the earlier multibarreled hand‐cranked Gatling gun (1862) and the Nordenfelt gun (1877). An avid promoter, Maxim effectively cultivated support from the British royal family and other influential Britons, which helped promote the adoption of the Maxim gun by the British army (1889) and the Royal Navy (1892). His company was consolidated with the Vickers Company in 1896. He became a British subject in 1900 and was knighted in 1901. His brother, Hudson Maxim (1853–1927), remained in the United States and developed a high explosive (Maximite). Despite the technical superiority of the Maxim gun, the U.S. Army resisted using it until 1904.

Neither Maxim nor most military men initially recognized the revolutionary impact the Maxim gun would have on the nature of battle. Although the machine gun would be used with deadly effectiveness by British imperial forces in suppressing colonial insurrections in Africa, few anticipated its extensive use in European warfare beginning in World War I.

Bibliography

Hiram S. Maxim, My Life, 1915.
John Ellis, The Social History of the Machine Gun, 1975

US Military Dictionary: Sir Hiram S. Maxim

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Maxim, Sir Hiram S. (1840-1916) self-taught engineer and inventor of the first automatic machine gun. Maxim, born Hiram Stevens Maxim near Sangersville, Maine, became a British subject. He had first focused his inventive efforts on the incandescent light bulb, experimenting with machine guns only on the side. His Maxim gun was not the first machine gun, but it was vastly superior to its predecessors. In 1889 it was adopted by the British army, which used it extensively in suppressing colonial insurrections. Its revolutionary impact on warfare was not immediately recognized.

Growing eccentric and anticlerical in his later years, he was arrested in 1913 for harassing Salvation Army workers with a pea-shooter.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Biography: Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim

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The American-born British inventor Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840-1916) is chiefly known for the automatic rifle, or machine gun, that bears his name.

Hiram Stevens Maxim was born near Sangerville, Maine, on Feb. 5, 1840. He received only a common-school education while working on his father's farm, but he spent his spare time studying science. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a carriage builder and later worked in his uncle's engineering firm in Fitchburg, Mass.

Moving to Boston, Maxim was employed in a scientific instrument shop, during which time (1866) he received his first patent, for an improved curling iron. Soon he became a draftsman with a New York shipbuilding firm where he invented many items, including a locomotive headlight. In 1878 he was appointed chief engineer of the first electric lighting company in the United States, and he soon produced a new type of filament for an incandescent light (the Maxim lamp). Maxim represented the electric lighting company at the Paris Exposition of 1881, where he was honored for still another invention, his electric pressure regulator.

In 1881 Maxim took up residence in England. He began to experiment on ways to improve weapons and in 1883 developed an automatic gun based on an entirely new principle. It used the recoil of the gun to advance the cartridge belt automatically. The Maxim gun could fire 666 rounds a minute and wold not jam from hasty operation by its handler. At first Maxim produced the gun himself, but his company merged with the Nordenfeldt company in 1888 and with Vickers in 1896. The Maxim gun was adopted for use by armies all over the world. For this and other inventions, Maxim was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1901.

A gifted and versatile inventor, Maxim received 122 United States patents and 149 British patents. He devoted much time and money near the turn of the century to aeronautical experiments. An airship he built in 1894 to study the lift and thrust of various wing shapes and propellers actually rose from the ground, but he had not developed methods for controlling his machine in the air and did not achieve manned flight. He had, however, using an incredibly heavy, steam-propelled machine, proved that mechanical flight in heavier-than-air machines was possible.

Maxim was a brilliant, artistic, and accomplished man, although it was difficult for others to get along with him. He was opinionated and self-centered, and even his younger brother Hudson, also an inventor, found him impossible as a colleague. Twice married, Maxim had two children; his son, Hiram Percy Maxim, became well known as an inventor in his own right. Maxim died in Streatham, London, on Nov. 24, 1916.

Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim

Born	February 5, 1840 Sangerville, Maine
Died	November 24, 1916 (aged 76) London
Resting place	West Norwood Cemetery
Occupation	Inventor
Children	Hiram Percy Maxim, Florence Maxim Cutter, Adelaide Maxim Joubert
Relatives	Hudson Maxim (brother)

Birth

Maxim was born in Sangerville, Maine in the United States of America. He became an apprentice coachbuilder at the age of 14 and ten years later took up a job at the machine works of his uncle, Levi Stephens, at Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He subsequently worked as an instrument maker and as a draughtsman.

Family

His brother, Hudson Maxim, was also a military inventor, specializing in explosives.

He married his first wife, Jane Budden, in 1867. Their children were: Hiram Percy Maxim; Florence Maxim, who married George Albert Cutter, and Adelaide Maxim, who married Eldon Joubert, Ignacy Jan Paderewski's piano tuner.^[1]

Hiram Percy Maxim followed in his father's and uncle's footsteps and became a mechanical engineer and weapons designer as well, but he is perhaps best known for his early amateur radio experiments and for founding the American Radio Relay League. His invention of the "Maxim Silencer" for noise supression came too late to save his father's hearing.^[2]

He married his second wife, Sarah, daughter of Charles Hayes of Boston, in 1881. It is not clear if he was legally divorced from his first wife at this time.

Emigration

Maxim emigrated to England in 1881 and became a naturalized Briton in 1899. Queen Victoria knighted Maxim in 1901 for his inventions, many of which had military applications.

Profession

Maxim was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour; a Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineer; Member of the London Chamber of Commerce; Member of the Royal Institution; Member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; Member of the British Empire League; and Member of the Royal Society of Arts.^[3].

The Maxim machine gun

1895 .303 tripod mounted Maxim machine gun. Photo: Max Smith

Maxim machine gun mounted on a Dunonald gun carriage

Maxim was reported to have said: "In 1882 I was in Vienna, where I met an American whom I had known in the States. He said: 'Hang your chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility' ".^[4]

As a child, Maxim had been knocked over by a rifle's recoil, and this inspired him to use that recoil force to automatically operate a gun. Between 1883 and 1885 Maxim patented gas, recoil and blow-back methods of operation. After moving to England, he settled in a large house formerly owned by Lord Thurlow in West Norwood where he developed his design for an automatic weapon, using an action that would close the breech and compress a spring, by storing the recoil energy released by a shot to prepare the gun for its next shot. He thoughtfully ran announcements in the local press warning that he would be experimenting with the gun in his garden and that neighbours should keep their windows open to avoid the danger of broken glass.^[5]

Maxim founded an armaments company to produce his machine gun in Crayford, Kent, which later merged with Nordenfeldt and the Vickers Corporation in 1896, becoming 'Vickers, Son & Maxim'. Their updated design, referred to as the Vickers gun after Maxim's resignation from the board in 1911 on his 71st birthday, was the standard British machine gun for many years. With arms sales led by Basil Zaharoff, variants of the Maxim gun were bought and used extensively by both sides during World War I.

In his later years Maxim became profoundly deaf, as his hearing had been damaged by years of exposure to the noise of his guns.^[6]

Inventions

Maxim is also credited with inventing the common mousetrap and, as a long-time sufferer from bronchitis, he also patented and manufactured a pocket menthol inhaler and a larger "Pipe of Peace", a steam inhaler using pine vapour, that he claimed could relieve asthma, tinnitus, hay fever and catarrh.^[7] After being criticised for applying his talents to quackery, he protested that: "it will be seen that it is a very creditable thing to invent a killing machine, and nothing less than a disgrace to invent an apparatus to prevent human suffering".^[4]

Maxim developed and installed the first electric lights in a New York City building (the Equitable Insurance Company Building at 120 Broadway) in the late 1870s.^[4] However, he was involved in several lengthy patent disputes with Thomas Edison over his claims to the lightbulb. One of these actions regarded the incandescent bulb, for which Maxim claimed that Edison was credited by means of his better understanding of patenting law (though in England Joseph Wilson Swan had already obtained the first patent in 1878). He claimed an employee of his (Maxim's) had falsely patented the invention under his own name, and that Edison proved the employee's claim to be false, knowing that patent law would mean the invention would become public property, allowing Edison to manufacture the lightbulb without crediting Maxim as the true inventor.

Flying machines

Maxim's flying machine

Maxim's father had earlier conceived of a helicopter powered by two counter-rotating rotors, but was unable to find a powerful enough engine to build it. Hiram first sketched out plans for a helicopter in 1872, but when he built his first "flying machine" he chose to use wings. Commencing work in 1889, he built a 145' long craft that weighed 3.5 tons, with a 110' wingspan that was powered by two compound 360 horsepower (270 kW) steam engines driving two propellers. In trials at Bexley in 1894 his machine rode on 1800' of rails and was prevented from rising by outriggers underneath and wooden safety rails overhead, somewhat in the manner of a roller coaster.^[8] His apparent goal in building this machine was not to soar freely, but to test if it would lift off the ground. During its test run all of the outriggers were engaged, showing that it had developed enough lift to take off, but in so doing it damaged the track; the "flight" was aborted in time to prevent disaster. The craft was almost certainly aerodynamically unstable and uncontrollable, which Maxim probably realized, because he subsequently abandoned work on it.^[9]

Captive Flying Machines

The Sir Hiram Maxim Captive Flying Machines operating at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 2006

In order to both fund his research into flight and to popularise the notion of flight, Maxim designed and built an amusement ride for the Earl's Court exhibition of 1904. The ride was based on a test rig he had devised for his research, and consisted of a large spinning frame from which cars hung captive. As the machine spun, the cars would be swung outward through the air, simulating flight. The ride was similar to the later Circle Swing ride, popularised in the USA by renowned roller coaster designer Harry Traver.

Maxim originally intended to use primitive aerofoils and wings to allow riders to control their flight, but this was outlawed as unsafe. As a result, Maxim quickly lost interest in the project, declaring the adapted ride as "Simply a glorified merry-go-round". Nevertheless, his company built several more rides of various sizes at The Crystal Palace and various seaside resorts including Southport, New Brighton, and Blackpool, all of which opened in 1904. Originally Maxim had only intended to build two, but a lengthy breakdown on the original Earl's Court ride forced him to build more in order to make the venture profitable. He had plans for further variations of the ride but his disillusionment with the amusement business meant that they were never realised.

Although he expressed regrets about the whole project, the rides were held in high regard within the amusement industry and the Blackpool ride still operates to this day as part of what is now the Pleasure Beach amusement park. Along with the same park's similarly historic River Caves, it is the oldest operating amusement ride in Europe. The Flying Machines has the distinction of being virtually unchanged from Maxim's original design. The Blackpool ride's name is now usually abbreviated to the "Flying Machine" or "Flying Machines", although the full name, "Sir Hiram Maxim's Captive Flying Machines", is given at the ride entrance.

In 2001 Disney's California Adventure opened, featuring the Golden Zephyr, a modern day recreation of the Traver version of the ride. The ride itself is much smaller than the Blackpool version with cars swinging out to a much less severe angle. Nevertheless, engineers from Disney visited Blackpool to inspect the Maxim ride (the only example of either version still standing) in order to help design their ride.

Grahame-White, Blériot, and Maxim Company

In 1911 he headed the newly formed Grahame-White, Blériot, and Maxim Company, founded with the two aviators and two hundred thousand pounds of capital. ^[10] He had hoped to produce military aircraft capable of scouting or dropping a 500 lb (230 kg) bomb, but his failing health and financial difficulties with his other enterprises restricted his ability to develop this enterprise before his death.^[11]

Philosophy and Religion

In addition to his Civil, Mechanical and Electrical endeavours, Maxim "compiled and edited" a book he titled "Li Hung Chang's Scrapbook" ^[12]. This book was addressed to Li Hung Chang (also spelled Li Hongzhang and Li Hung-chang) and endeavoured to address a belief that "The Chinese were generally puzzled as to how it was possible for people who are able to build locomotives and steamships to have a religion based on a belief in devils, ghosts, impossible miracles, and all the other absurdities and impossibilities peculiar to the religion taught by the missionaries" (Op. cit. Foreward page x).

Maxim held European missionaries in China in low esteem, for reasons described in the scrap-book. He stated "...it was my aim, in compiling for His Excellency a scrap-book with explanatory notes, to put the Chinaman right in this respect. I wished to show that we were not all fools." (Op.cit. Foreward page x). His scrap-book comprised some 400 pages with 42 illustrations, presenting his views on The Nature of Christianity; Christianity in China; and his conclusions on subjects including Miracles, Spirituality, Faith; and the influence of the Bible on the civilization of Europe and America. He concluded his scrap-book with an appeal to the Missionaries and his thoughts on the reason for the failure of what he described as "Missionary Propaganda" in China.

Death

Maxim died in London and is buried in West Norwood Cemetery.

Books

Artificial and Natural Flight^[13]

Li Hung Chang's Scrapbook ^[14]

A New System of Preventing Collisions at Sea ^[15]

Patents

U.S. Patent 208,252 - Electric lamp
U.S. Patent 230,310 - Electric lamp
U.S. Patent 230,953 - Electric lamps
U.S. Patent 230,954 - Process for removing air from globes of electric lamps
U.S. Patent 230,309 - Electric lamp
U.S. Patent 234,835 - Electrical lamp
U.S. Patent 237,198 - Process of manufacturing carbon conductors
U.S. Patent 244,277 - Electric Lamp
U.S. Patent 247,083 - Process of Manufacturing Carbons
U.S. Patent 247,084 - Incandescent Electric Lamp
U.S. Patent 247,085 - Process of Manufacturing Carbon Conductors
U.S. Patent 247,380 - Electric Lamp
U.S. Patent 255,308 - Electrical meter
U.S. Patent 277,846 - Process of Manufacturing Carbons for Incandescent Lamps
U.S. Patent 283,629 - Electric Lamp
U.S. Patent 405,239 - Apparatus for the Manufacture of Filaments for Incandescent Lamps
U.S. Patent 405,170 - Manufacture of Filaments for Electric Lamps
U.S. Patent 430,212 - Manufacture of explosive
U.S. Patent 618,703 - Apparatus for Manufacturing Filaments for Electric Lamps
U.S. Patent 618,704 - Method of Manufacturing Filaments for Electric Lamps

GB189700207 (1897 with Louis Silverman) - automatic fire mechanism
GB189607468 (1897) - gas action for machine guns
GB189607045 (1897) - breech mechanism of machine gun

Hiram Percy Maxim (son):

U.S. Patent 594,805 - Motor vehicle
U.S. Patent 757,941 - Motor vehicle running gear
U.S. Patent 772,571 - Electric motor vehicle
U.S. Patent 845,106 - Motor road vehicle

References

^ "Hiram Percy Maxim, Wireless Amateur No. 1, Defended Rights of Youth". New York Times. February 23, 1936, Sunday. "Radio amateurs, numbering more than 45,000 in the United States, are mourning the loss of a friend and faithful ally in the passing of Hiram Percy Maxim of Hartford, Connecticut. As an ardent wireless amateur Mr. Maxim is remembered by veteran experimenters of pre-war days by the musical tone of his quench spark gap which spelled out the call letters of his pioneer station."
^ "Noise's Bogeyman". Time (magazine). January 4, 1932. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742801,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-21. "While mental hygienists, efficiency experts and city officials have been bewailing the maddening effects of city noise, Hiram Percy Maxim has been manufacturing noise mufflers at Hartford, Conn. Last week he announced that his Maxim Silencer Co., of which he is president and his only son Hiram Hamilton is chief engineer and whose factory is in Asylum Street, Hartford, will—besides continuing to make silencers for guns, motor exhausts, safety valves, air releases, in fact every kind of pipe which emits a gas—offer a consulting service in noise abatement."
^ Hiram Stevens Maxim (1913). Li Hung Chang's Scrapbook. Watts & Co.
^ ^a ^b ^c Malcolm Brown 100 years of 'Maxim's Killing Machine' New York Times, 26 November 1985
^ Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert, The London Encyclopedia, ISBN 0-333-57688-8 Serbia House
^ Action By Sir Hiram Maxim, The Times, 16 Jan 1915
^ The Times, Sir Hiram Maxim's great Invention, 19 July 1910
^ "Death Of Sir Hiram Maxim. A Famous Inventor, Automatic Guns And Aeronautics". The Times. 25 November 1916.
^ Beril, Becker (1967) (in English). Dreams and Realities of the Conquest of the Skies. New York: Atheneum. pp. pp. 124-125.
^ "Maxim Leads Air Company. Grahame-White, Bleriot and Maxim Company with $1,000,000 Capital.". New York Times. "Sir Hiram Maxim, who has just resigned from the ordnance firm with which his name has been for so long connected, will be the Chairman of a new company to be known as the Grahame-White, Bleriot, and Maxim Company, limited, with a total authorized capital of 200,000 ($1,000,000.)"
^ Sir Hiram Maxim's Resignation. The Inventor And Aviation, The Times 23 March 1911
^ Hiram Stevens Maxim (1913). Li Hung Chang's Scrapbook. Watts & Co.
^ Hiram Stevens Maxim (1908). Artificial and Natural Flight. Whittaker. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=ZVFRqYun1EoC&dq=artificial+and+natural+flight&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=351tza-g3q&sig=HqedQqtFp0K4SGIbTn5W9BSbHZ8.
^ Hiram Stevens Maxim (1913). Li Hung Chang's Scrapbook. Watts & Co.
^ Hiram Stevens Maxim (2009). A New System of Preventing Collisions at Sea. Schwarz Press. ISBN 1444605534. http://isbndb.com/d/book/a_new_system_of_preventing_collisions_at_sea.html.

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