Who is hiram maxim

As the gun began to sell, Maxim devoted time to other experiments—notably some pioneering work in aviation—and to discrediting the efforts of other inventors.

He was always fiercely jealous, and his autobiography, a singularly unappealing document, is a catalogue of minor grudges and petty triumphs. He took on his brother Hudson as a partner for a while, but soon became resentful of his inventive gifts.

Hudson claimed that after he had returned to America, Hiram actually hired a representative to follow him there and interfere with his work. In Maxim became a British subject, and the next year Queen Victoria acknowledged his service to her Empire by knighting him. As the lines of trenches spread across Europe, the laggard powers studied their deadlocked armies and began to realize what a truly formidable weapon the machine gun was.

Maxim died in the winter of , just as the battle of the Somme, the most stunning demonstration of his gun, was drawing to a close. He had other concerns in his last years. Hiram Maxim was born 5 February , in Sangersville, Maine.

He was raised by his poor father who owned a sheep farm. Tending sheep through his childhood, Maxim's only education came from five years spent within a one-room schoolhouse. There he learned basic skills, such as reading and writing. At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to a carriage maker.

Working in a mouse infested mill, Maxim showed signs of ingenuity when he developed an automated mouse trap, a design that is still used today in common households.

Following his service as an apprentice, he moved from job to job in search of places where he could apply his inventive mind. During the process, he created a silicate blackboard, and was able to successfully patent his first invention in , the hair-curling iron.

Maxim later invented a device that generates illuminating gas and locomotive headlights, and was hired as the chief engineer of the United States Electric Lighting Company. In the latter position he created a method of manufacturing carbon filaments. In , he displayed an electric pressure regulator at the Paris Exposition, representing the United States Electric Lighting Company. Maxim was decorated by the French Government for his work with electricity and the invention of the electric pressure regulator.

Wanting to apply his skills, the suggestion stood with him. Taking with him the advice that was given to him by the stranger, he began to take interest in weaponry, and developed a machine gun in Maxim was born in Maine in He was drawn to invention early in life. He worked with gas illumination, then electricity. He developed electric lighting systems even before Edison. In a friend told him, "Hang your electricity. If you want to make your fortune, invent something to help these fool Europeans kill each other more quickly!

Maxim took the advice. By he'd invented the first single-barrel machine gun. This "Maxim Gun" fired rounds a minute, and it changed warfare.

The Maxim Guns and nastier guns that followed made Maxim's name. They also gained him an English knighthood. Around , he created a locomotive headlight that came into common use. His later inventions included an automatic fire extinguisher, automatic gas generator, engine governors, steam and vacuum pumps, inhalers for bronchitis, a mousetrap, automatic spindle, density regulator for equalizing the illuminating value of gas, and an electrical pressure regulator, which won him a French Legion of Honor.

Born in Sangerville, Maine, Maxim was the eldest son of a farmer and woodworker. At age fourteen, Maxim was apprenticed to a carriagemaker and learned numerous other trades in New England and Canada. As a hobby, he enjoyed pugilismand toyed with the idea of becoming a professional boxer, but instead he moved to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where he worked for an engineer. From there he migrated to Boston and worked for a maker of scientific instruments, then to New York, where he was employed at the Novelty Iron Company and secured hisfirst patent for a curling iron.

His first major contributions were the graphite-rod incandescent light bulb in , a standardized coating of carbon lamp filaments in , and an electric current regulator, which won international praise in at the Paris Exhibition.