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Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (5 February 1840 – 24 November 1916) was an American-born British inventor best known as the creator of the first automatic machine gun, the Maxim gun. [1] Maxim held patents on numerous mechanical devices such as hair-curling irons , a mousetrap , and steam pumps .
The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Stevens Maxim.It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world. [15]The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian Martin Gilbert, [16] and was heavily used by colonial powers during the "Scramble for Africa".
It was the first air-cooled Maxim gun, and the first with the mainspring inside the receiver casing. [4] At the time, it was the lightest machine gun in the world. Maxim hoped that cavalry units would appreciate the Extra Light gun for “hit and run” raids, for its light weight.
The Curtiss flights emboldened the Smithsonian to display the Aerodrome in its museum as "the first man-carrying aeroplane in the history of the world capable of sustained free flight". Fred Howard, extensively documenting the controversy, wrote: "It was a lie pure and simple, but it bore the imprimatur of the venerable Smithsonian and over the ...
Hiram Maxim originally designed the Pom-Pom in the late 1880s as an enlarged version of the Maxim machine gun.Its longer range necessitated exploding projectiles to judge range, which in turn dictated a shell weight of at least 400 grams (0.88 lb), as that was the lightest exploding shell allowed under the Saint Petersburg Declaration of 1868 and reaffirmed in the Hague Convention of 1899.
For its day, though, it was a brilliant design produced in record time by John Browning, and it was bought and used by many countries around the world. It was the standard squad light automatic of the U.S. infantry during World War II and saw use in every theater of war." [15] The BAR was praised for its reliability and stopping power. "The US ...
October – Hiram Maxim first demonstrates the Maxim gun, the first self-powered machine gun (using recoil operation). [18] Fall – Chester H. Pond invents the first electrical self-winding clock. [19] Charles Parsons invents the modern steam turbine. [20]
Merchants of Death (1934) covers the history of the Arms industry. Featured companies include DuPont, Colt, Remington, Vickers, Schneider-Creusot, Krupp, and Škoda Works. Individuals include Hiram Maxim and Basil Zaharoff. Arms profits before and during World War I are compared. [4]:159 The growth of Japanese armaments is covered.