Hiram Maxim, American-Anglo Inventor

Hiram Maxim, American-Anglo Inventor

Hiram Stevens Maxim (February 5, 1840 - November 24, 1916) was an American-born inventor. In 1881, Maxim arrived in England in order to reorganize the London offices of the U.S. Electric Lighting Company. In 1900 he became a naturalized British subject. Maxim was the inventor of the Maxim Gun, the first portable, fully automatic machine gun, and an elaborate mousetrap. He laid a claim to inventing the lightbulb, and even experimented with powered flight, but his large aircraft designs were never successful. He also invented a curling iron, an apparatus for demagnetizing watches, magno-electric machines, devices to prevent the rolling of ships, eyelet and riveting machines, aircraft artillery, an aerial torpedo gun, coffee substitutes, and various oil, steam, and gas engines. Maxim, a long-time sufferer from bronchitis, patented and manufactured a pocket menthol inhaler and a larger "Pipe of Peace", a steam inhaler using pine vapor, that he claimed could relieve asthma, tinnitus, hay fever and catarrh. Queen Victoria bestowed a knighthood upon him, but the actual knighting was done by Edward VII. He died in 1916 at the age of 76.

Album / Science Source / New York Public Library

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2466 x 4746 px | 33.5 MB

20.9 x 40.2 cm | 8.2 x 15.8 in (300 dpi)