Inventor Hiram S. Maxim (1840-1916)

Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim ( February 4, 1840 - November 24, 1916) was the inventor of the Maxim Gun in 1884, the first portable, fully automatic machine gun. 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.

Maxim was born in Sangerville, Piscataquis County, Maine in the United States of America but emigrated to England. Maxim was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1901 for his inventions, many of which had military applications. Over the years he was involved in several patent disputes with Thomas Edison.

Maxim founded an armaments company to produce his machine gun, which was bought out by the VickersThe Vickers corporation, founded as the Vickers company in 1828, was a British manufacturer, primarily of military equipment. Land armaments Vickers produced the Vickers machine gun, lovingly remembered by thousands of British machine gunners. The company corporation in 1896Events January 4 Utah is admitted as the 45th U. January 5 An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Rontgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays. January 12 H. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph. January 18 The X-ray machine is exhib. 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 all sides during the Great War.

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

Maxim died in LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri. His son Hiram Percy MaximHiram Percy Maxim ( September 2, 1869 February 17, 1936) was founder of the American Radio Relay League and had the amateur call sign W1AW (now the ARRL home station call sign). Hiram Percy Maxim was a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology followed in his father and uncle's footsteps and became a mechanical engineer and weapons designer as well.

External link

A Tale of Two Knights: Sir Hiram Maxim