Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (February 5, 1840 – November 24, 1916) was an American-born British inventor most famous for creating the first automatic machine gun, called the Maxim gun. He owned patents for many mechanical devices, including hair-curling irons, a mousetrap, and steam pumps. He said he invented the lightbulb.

Maxim studied powered flight, but his large aircraft designs did not work. Around 1904, he created a successful amusement ride named the "Captive Flying Machine" to support his flight research and increase public interest in flying.

Maxim moved from the United States to the United Kingdom at age 41. He remained an American citizen until he became a British citizen through legal process in 1899. He was given a knighthood in 1901.

Birth and early life

Maxim was born on February 5, 1840, in Sangerville, Maine. He came from a family with French Huguenot roots. At the age of 14, he began an apprenticeship as a coachbuilder. Ten years later, he worked at the machine factory owned by his uncle, Levi Stephens, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Later, he held jobs as an instrument-maker and as a draughtsman. His early experiences in these roles led him to feel disappointed with workers when he managed his own businesses later in life. Hiram called himself a Protestant.

Inventions

Sir Hiram Maxim, who had long suffered from bronchitis, created and produced a small menthol inhaler and a larger steam inhaler called the "Pipe of Peace," which used pine vapor. He claimed these devices could help with asthma, tinnitus, hay fever, and catarrh. When people criticized him for using his skills in unproven treatments, he argued, "It is a creditable thing to invent a killing machine, but disgraceful to create something that prevents human suffering."

He also designed many other inventions, including a curling iron, a device to remove magnetism from watches, machines that used electricity, tools to stop ships from rolling, machines for making eyelets and rivets, aircraft artillery, an aerial torpedo gun, coffee substitutes, and various oil, steam, and gas engines.

A large furniture factory had burned down multiple times, and Maxim was asked to find a way to stop this from happening again. As a result, he invented the first automatic fire sprinkler system. This system would spray water on fires and send a signal to the fire station. Although he could not sell the idea at first, it was later used after his patent expired.

In the late 1870s, Maxim installed the first electric lights in a building in New York City, the Equitable Life Building at 120 Broadway. In 1878, he helped start the United States Electric Lighting Company with Edward Weston to share his designs with others.

However, he had long legal disagreements with Thomas Edison about who invented the lightbulb. One dispute involved the incandescent bulb. Maxim said Edison was credited because Edison understood patent laws better. He claimed one of his employees had incorrectly patented the invention, but Edison proved this was false, allowing Edison to make the bulb without giving Maxim credit.

Maxim once said, "In 1882, I was in Vienna, where I met an American I knew in the United States. He told me, 'Forget about chemistry and electricity! If you want to make money, invent something that helps Europeans hurt each other more easily.'"

As a child, Maxim was knocked down by the recoil of a rifle, which inspired him to use recoil force to make a gun operate automatically. Between 1883 and 1885, he patented methods for gas, recoil, and blowback operations. After moving to England, he lived in a large house once owned by Lord Thurlow in West Norwood. There, he designed an automatic weapon that used recoil energy to prepare the gun for the next shot. He warned neighbors in local newspapers that he would test the gun in his garden and asked them to keep windows open to avoid broken glass.

Maxim started a weapons company with financial support from Edward Vickers to produce his machine gun in Crayford, Kent. The company later merged with Nordenfelt. In 1897, part of the Barrow Shipbuilding Company was bought by Vickers Corporation, forming "Vickers, Son & Maxim." After Maxim left the company in 1911, the Vickers machine gun, an improved version of his design, became the standard British machine gun for many years. Variants of the Maxim gun were used by both sides in World War I.

In his later years, Maxim became very deaf due to years of exposure to the loud noise of his guns.

Maxim’s father had earlier thought of a helicopter powered by two spinning rotors, but could not find a strong enough engine to build it. In 1872, Hiram sketched plans for a helicopter, but later chose to use wings instead. Before designing, he tested different wing shapes and propeller designs using a wind tunnel and a whirling arm test rig. In 1889, he began building a 40-foot-long (12 m) craft with a 110-foot (34 m) wingspan that weighed 3.5 tons. It was powered by two steam engines driving two 17-foot-diameter (5.2 m) pine propellers.

The machine was tested on a 1,800-foot (550 m) rail track built at his home, Baldwyn’s Park Mansion. Initially, heavy wheels were used to prevent it from lifting, but after tests, Maxim added four wheeled outriggers to stop it from rising. During a trial in 1894, the machine lifted and pulled the track, but the test was stopped before a disaster. Maxim then stopped working on the project but used his experience to build fairground rides. He noted that a practical flying machine would need a more powerful engine, like a petrol engine.

To fund his flight research and promote the idea of flying, Maxim designed an amusement ride for the Earl’s Court exhibition in 1904. The ride was based on a test rig he created and used a large spinning frame with cars that swung outward, simulating flight. It was similar to the later Circle Swing ride, popularized by Harry Traver.

Maxim originally planned to use wings for riders to control their flight, but this was banned as unsafe. He then lost interest in the project, calling the ride "simply a glorified merry-go-round." His company built several more rides at The Crystal Palace and seaside resorts like Southport, New Brighton, and Blackpool, all opening in 1904. Originally, he planned to build only two, but a breakdown on the first ride forced him to build more to make the venture profitable. He had plans for other versions of the ride but stopped working on them due to his disappointment with the amusement business.

Although he regretted the project, the rides were well-regarded in the industry. The Blackpool ride still operates today as part of the Pleasure Beach amusement park. Along with the park’s historic river caves, it is the oldest operating ride in Europe. The "Flying Machines" ride at Blackpool remains almost unchanged from Maxim’s original design. The ride’s full name, "Sir Hiram Maxim’s Captive Flying Machines," is displayed at the entrance.

In 2001, Disney California Adventure Park opened with the Golden Zephyr, a modern version of the Traver ride. Engineers from Disney visited Blackpool to study the Maxim ride (the only remaining example of either version) to help design their version.

Grahame-White, Blériot, and Maxim Company

In 1911, Maxim led a new company called Grahame-White, Blériot, and Maxim, which was started with two aviators and 200,000 pounds of money. He wanted to build military airplanes that could spy or drop a 500-pound (230 kg) bomb. However, his illness and money problems from other businesses stopped him from working on this project before he died.

Philosophy

Maxim, an atheist who worked as an engineer, gathered and organized a book titled Li Hung Chang's Scrapbook. This book was written for Li Hung Chang, a Chinese official, and aimed to explain a question that many Chinese people had: How could people who build trains and ships believe in a religion that includes ideas about devils, ghosts, and impossible miracles?

Maxim did not respect European missionaries in China, as explained in the scrapbook. He wrote that his goal was to help Chinese people understand that not everyone who follows Christianity is foolish. The scrapbook contained about 400 pages and 42 drawings. It discussed topics such as what Christianity is, how it exists in China, and ideas about miracles, spirituality, and the impact of the Bible on European and American cultures. The book ended with Maxim's thoughts on why missionary efforts in China had not been successful.

Honours

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

Emigration and knighthood

In 1881, Maxim traveled to Britain to reorganize the London offices of the United States Electric Lighting Company. His trips back to the United States became less frequent over time. On 16 September 1899, Maxim officially became a British citizen. The following year, Queen Victoria planned to award him a knighthood. However, Queen Victoria passed away on 22 January 1901, shortly before the ceremony. As a result, the honor was given by Maxim's "friend and new king, Edward VII" at Marlborough House on 9 February 1901.

Death

Maxim passed away at his home in Streatham, London on 24 November 1916 when he was 76 years old. He is buried in the West Norwood Cemetery in south London, along with his wife and his grandson, Lieutenant Colonel Maxim Joubert.

Family

Hiram Maxim's brother, Hudson Maxim, was also a military inventor who specialized in explosives. The two brothers worked closely together until later in life, when they had a disagreement over a patent for smokeless powder. Hiram claimed the patent had been issued under the name "H. Maxim," which allowed his brother to claim the invention as his own. Hudson was a skilled and knowledgeable man who sold arms in the United States, while Hiram focused on work in Europe. Hudson's success in the U.S. caused Hiram to feel jealous, as he described having a "double" of himself in America. This jealousy and disagreement led to a lasting rift between the brothers that remained for the rest of their lives.

Hiram Maxim married his first wife, Jane Budden, an English-born woman, on May 11, 1867, in Boston, Massachusetts. 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). In 1875, the family moved to Fanwood, New Jersey, and Hiram joined them on weekends.

Hiram Percy Maxim, Hiram's son, followed in his father's and uncle's footsteps by becoming a mechanical engineer and weapons designer. He is best known for his early experiments with amateur radio and for founding the American Radio Relay League. He also invented the "Maxim Silencer," a device for noise suppression, though it came too late to help his father's hearing. Hiram Percy later wrote a biography titled A Genius in the Family, which includes about 60 anecdotes describing his childhood experiences with his father until age 12. These stories provide insight into Hiram Maxim's personal and family life. A film titled So Goes My Love, loosely based on these memoirs and starring Don Ameche and Myrna Loy, was released in 1946.

Hiram Maxim married his secretary and mistress, Sarah, daughter of Charles Haynes of Boston, in 1881. It is unclear whether he was legally divorced from his first wife, Jane Budden, at that time. The marriage was also registered in Westminster, London, in 1890.

A woman named Helen Leighton filed a lawsuit against Hiram Maxim, claiming he had married her in 1878 and that he was committing bigamy by being married to Jane Budden at the same time. She also claimed that Maxim had fathered a child named Romaine with her. The case was eventually dropped after being settled for less than $1,000 (the original request was $25,000), and Maxim avoided public embarrassment from the situation. In October 1898, Helen Leighton again accused Maxim of bigamy and abandonment in Poughkeepsie, New York. Later in life, Maxim left 4,000 pounds sterling to a man named Romaine Dennison, possibly the child Helen Leighton claimed he had fathered.

Books

• Artificial and Natural Flight. By Whittaker. 1908.
• Artificial and Natural Flight (Second Edition with Supplement). By Whittaker. 1909.
• Li Hung Chang's Scrapbook.
• A New System of Preventing Collisions at Sea. Published by Schwarz Press in 2009. ISBN 978-1-4446-0553-2. The original version was archived on July 24, 2012, and retrieved on September 20, 2009.
• My Life. Published by Methuen & Co., Ltd. in 1915. ISBN 9781408609675. {{ cite book }} : ISBN / Date incompatibility ( help ).
• Monte Carlo Facts and Fallacies. By Grant Richards. 1904.