William Cantelo became an engineer and, in the 1870s, owned a shop on French Street in Southampton and a yard in Northam, employing up to 40 people.
13 Facts About William Cantelo
1.
2.
William Cantelo was the landlord of the Old Tower Inn at the end of Bargate Street which derived its name from the Arundel Tower against which it was built.
3.
Beneath the pub was a tunnel where William Cantelo spent much of his time, turning it into an underground workshop.
4.
William Cantelo was a keen musician and the bandmaster of the old 2nd Hampshires.
5.
William Cantelo used the tunnel underneath the Old Tower Inn for his experiments and was later joined by his two sons, both engineers themselves.
6.
William Cantelo sold the Maxim gun to the British government.
7.
The name "Maxim", the family claimed, was evidence that William Cantelo had assumed this new identity.
8.
Fond of maxims, William Cantelo often carried a book of such phrases in his pocket.
9.
Two witnesses claim that William Cantelo referred to his invention as "my maxim gun".
10.
The family's belief that William Cantelo re-emerged under a new identity is inconsistent with accounts of Maxim's early life.
11.
William Cantelo developed an interest in inventions and obtained 271 patents, the first of which came in 1866.
12.
William Cantelo discovered that Maxim had complained about a man who was impersonating him in the United States.
13.
William Cantelo showed a photograph of Cantelo next to his machine gun to the Royal Armouries, who stated that the weapon appeared to be the same as the Maxim gun.