38 Facts About Hiram Maxim

Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim was an American-born British inventor best known as the creator of the first automatic machine gun, the Maxim gun.

Hiram Maxim experimented with powered flight; his large aircraft designs were never successful.

Hiram Maxim moved from the United States to the United Kingdom at the age of 41, and remained an American citizen until he became a naturalised British citizen in 1899, and received a knighthood in 1901.

Hiram Maxim was born in Sangerville, Maine on 5 February 1840, into a family of French Huguenot origin.

Hiram Maxim 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.

Hiram Maxim subsequently worked as an instrument-maker and as a draughtsman.

Hiram Maxim invented a curling iron, an apparatus for demagnetising watches, magno-electric machines, devices to prevent the rolling of ships, eyelet and riveting machines, aircraft artillery, an aerial torpedo gun, coffee substitutes, and various oil, steam, and gas engines.

Hiram Maxim was unable to sell the idea elsewhere, but when the patent expired the idea was used.

Hiram Maxim developed and installed the first electric lights in a New York City building in the late 1870s.

One of these actions regarded the incandescent bulb, for which Hiram Maxim claimed that Edison was credited by means of his better understanding of patenting law.

Hiram Maxim claimed that an employee of his 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 Hiram Maxim as the true inventor.

Between 1883 and 1885 Hiram Maxim patented gas, recoil and blowback methods of operation.

Hiram Maxim 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.

Hiram Maxim founded an arms company with financial backing from Edward Vickers to produce his machine gun in Crayford, Kent, which later merged with Nordenfelt.

Hiram 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 Maxim first sketched out plans for a helicopter in 1872, but when he built his first "flying machine" he chose to use wings.

The initial intention was to prevent the machine from lifting off by using heavy cast-iron wheels, but after initial trials, Hiram Maxim concluded that this would not suffice, and so the machine was fitted with four wheeled outriggers which were restrained by wooden rails 13 feet outside the central track.

Hiram Maxim subsequently abandoned work on it but put his experience to work on fairground rides.

Hiram Maxim subsequently noted that a feasible flying machine would need better power-to-weight engines, such as a petrol combustion engine.

Hiram Maxim originally intended to use primitive aerofoils and wings to allow riders to control their flight, but this was outlawed as unsafe.

Originally, Hiram Maxim had intended to build only two, but a lengthy breakdown on the original Earl's Court ride forced him to build more to make the venture profitable.

Hiram Maxim had plans for further variations of the ride but his disillusionment with the amusement business meant that they were never realised.

Nevertheless, engineers from Disney visited Blackpool to inspect the Hiram Maxim ride to help design their ride.

In 1911, Hiram Maxim headed the newly formed Grahame-White, Bleriot, and Hiram Maxim Company, founded with the two aviators and two hundred thousand pounds of capital.

Hiram Maxim had hoped to produce military aircraft capable of scouting or dropping a 500-pound bomb, but his failing health and financial difficulties with his other enterprises restricted his ability to develop this enterprise before his death.

Hiram Maxim held European missionaries in China in low esteem, for reasons described in the scrapbook.

Hiram Maxim concluded his scrapbook with an appeal to the Missionaries and his thoughts on the reason for the failure of what he described as "Missionary Propaganda" in China.

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

In 1881, Hiram Maxim arrived in Britain to reorganise the London offices of the United States Electric Lighting Company.

Hiram Maxim died at his home in Streatham, London on 24 November 1916 at the age of 76.

Hiram Maxim is buried in south London's West Norwood Cemetery with his wife and his grandson, Lieutenant Colonel Maxim Joubert.

Hiram Maxim's brother, Hudson Maxim, was a military inventor, specializing in explosives.

The patent, Hiram Maxim claimed, had been issued under the name 'H.

Hudson was a skilled and knowledgeable man, and sold arms in the US, while Hiram Maxim worked mainly in Europe.

Hiram Maxim married his first wife, the English-born Jane Budden, on 11 May 1867 in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1875, the family moved to Fanwood, New Jersey, with Hiram Maxim joining the family on weekends.

Hiram Maxim married his secretary and mistress, Sarah, daughter of Charles Haynes of Boston, in 1881.

Hiram Maxim claimed further that Maxim had fathered a child named Romaine by her.