Hiram Stevens Maxim

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Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, 1916

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

Maxim's flying machine

Maxim machine gun mounted on a Dunonald gun carriage

Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (February 5, 1840 - November 24, 1916) was the inventor of the Maxim Gun in 1881, the first portable, fully automatic machine gun, and the ubiquitous mousetrap. He also experimented in powered flight, but his large aircraft designs were never successful. However, his "Captive Flying Machine" amusement ride became a staple of British fairgrounds.

[edit] Biography

Maxim was born in Sangerville, Piscataquis County, 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.

Maxim is also credited with inventing the common mousetrap and, as a long-time sufferer from bronchitis, he also patented and manufactured the "Pipe of Peace", a menthol amodium inhaler. Over the years he was involved in several patent disputes with Thomas Edison. One of these included the incandescent lightbulb.

Maxim emigrated to England in 1881 (by which time he'd given up trying to sell his bulb when it became clear Edison had won) and became a naturalized Briton in 1899. Queen Victoria knighted Maxim in 1901 for his inventions, many of which had military applications. Maxim founded an armaments company to produce his machine gun in Crayford, Kent, which was later bought out by the Vickers corporation in 1896, becoming 'Vickers, Son & Maxim'. Their updated version of the design, referred to as the Vickers gun, was the standard British machine gun for many years. Variants of the Maxim gun were used extensively by both sides during World War I. His brother Hudson was also a military inventor, specializing in explosives.

Maxim died in London and is buried in West Norwood Cemetery. His son Hiram Percy Maxim followed in his father 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.