Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens (1840–1916), engineer and inventor. Lived and died at his home at Sandhurst Lodge, High Road, Streatham,
Maxim was born on 5 February 1840 at Brockway's Mills, near Sangerville, Maine, USA, the elder son of Isaac Weston Maxim (1814–1883) and his wife, Harriet Boston (1815–1901), daughter of Levi Stevens of Maine. His father's family were of Huguenot and his mother's of English descent. Isaac Maxim was a farmer and wood-turner with a leaning for philosophy and a talent for invention. It is interesting, in view of Hiram Maxim's subsequent career, that his father also tinkered with the ideas of an automatic gun and a flying machine.
In 1867 Maxim married an English immigrant, Louisa Jane Budden (1841–1911); they had a son and two daughters.
Maxim transferred his operations to London, where in 1884 he opened a workshop in Hatton Garden and directed his attention to gunnery. He formed the Maxim Gun Company in the same year and prepared a design for a fully automatic gun; in order to block any competition he assiduously patented every conceivable device concerning the firing mechanism. As soon as this weapon was constructed, it attracted high official notice and was inspected by the British commander-in-chief, the duke of Cambridge, and the prince of Wales. Lord Wolseley was greatly struck by it, and suggested certain developments in range and power, which led Maxim to make a number of variations of his original design in order to meet different conditions.
The Maxim gun was adopted in the British army in 1889 and in the Royal Navy in 1892, though initial orders were disappointing. Unlike earlier machine guns it had a single barrel and completely automatic action, firing at the rate of ten rounds a second. Maxim also patented a smokeless powder, maximite, which led him into dispute with the War Office explosives committee who were developing cordite, a similar product, at the same time. His firm merged with the Nordenfeldt Company in 1888 and the joint concern established various manufactories near Crayford, in Kent, before being itself absorbed in 1896 into the company of Vickers Sons and Maxim, of which Maxim became a director; he retired from the board in 1911. Meanwhile he was a tireless arms salesman, travelling throughout Europe—sometimes with Basil Zaharoff—visiting St Petersburg twice and Constantinople once; in addition, many heads of state came to England where he laid on impressive demonstrations of the power and speed of his guns.
From gunnery Maxim turned his attention to flying, and during the period 1889–94 produced a steam-driven test rig; this may be said, in a technical sense, to have flown, since, during a trial carried out at Baldwyn's Park, Bexley, Kent, in July 1894, the runner wheels were lifted off the rail track, but otherwise the machine failed to achieve its purpose, mainly on account of its excessive weight. It consisted of a large central plane with two curved side frames. Its engines and boilers weighed respectively 600 lb and 1200 lb, including casing, feed-water heater, dome, and uptake. For a horsepower of 300, the total weight of the motive agency, 6 lb per hp, was not unreasonable, but, unfortunately, feed-water for an hour's trip added 6000 lb to the load. £20,000 was expended on this absurd contraption. A later version, intended for demonstration at the Aero and Motorboat Exhibition held at Olympia in 1910, was not ready on time and at that point the project ended. It inspired H. G. Wells's story 'The Argonauts of the air'.
Maxim and his younger brother, Isaac (who called himself Hudson) Maxim (1853–1927), explosives engineer, had co-operated but their relationship deteriorated, culminating in a final quarrel and bitter feud. Each used the press to vilify the other. Hiram hired a New York detective agency to gain evidence against Isaac. Isaac instigated Hiram's arrest in New York and prosecution in October 1898 on a bigamy charge brought by Helen Leighton (also known as Nell Malcolm and Tug Wilson): Hiram was acquitted. The brothers were never reconciled.
A wealthy man, Maxim had by this time settled permanently in England. He became a naturalized citizen, and was knighted in February 1901. In 1900 he suffered an attack of bronchitis and was advised to pass the winter of 1901–2 at a sanatorium in Nice. This experience led him to design and have manufactured in London inhalers to ease his fellow sufferers. In 1915 he published his boastful and unreliable autobiography, My Life. Active and inventive to the last, he died of broncho-pneumonia and heart failure at his home, Sandhurst Lodge, High Road, Streatham, London, on 24 November 1916 and was buried at Norwood cemetery.
Maxim loved to describe himself as 'a chronic inventor'. His versatility, skill, and ingenuity encompassed many fields of science and technology and his patents were legion. He could never use a machine without seeking to improve it, and between the hours spent in his conventional work, he also made improvements (as he saw it) to the mousetrap, the merry-go-round, an automatic sprinkler, a feed-water heater, and a process for obtaining cheap phosphoric anhydride. Unlike many inventors, Maxim was fastidious about his appearance. He was about 6 feet tall and well built with fluffy hair and beard, jet black in early life and snow white in his later years. He was exceedingly vain and despite his success was consumed by jealousy of other inventors, especially Thomas Edison, his rival in electric lighting, and his own brother, Isaac. The image of the self-made man, with a hearty dislike for lawyers and labour leaders, he had no use for any religion and declared himself a citizen of the world. His machine guns, which were manufactured in several variants, not only in Britain but also under licence in Germany, Russia, and elsewhere, killed untold numbers in over fifty years of war. The British variant, the Vickers machine gun, continued in service until 1963.
