Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Maxim, Hiram Stevens
MAXIM, Sir HIRAM STEVENS (1840–1916), engineer and inventor, was born of Huguenot stock and humble parentage at Sangerville, Maine, U.S.A., 5 February 1840. He was the elder son of Isaac Weston Maxim, who in early manhood married Harriett Boston, daughter of Levi Stevens, of Maine, and started farming on a modest scale. His farm was a pioneer undertaking: the site, which was in the midst of a dense forest, had to be cleared, and a farm-house and outbuildings erected. The district was infested by bears and the nearest house was half a mile distant. In this primitive setting Hiram Maxim was born and bred. As was appropriate to such an environment, his boyhood was adventurous, and his training one of sturdy self-reliance. When he was six his father abandoned farming and took up wood-turning, at which Hiram acquired considerable proficiency. He was studiously inclined and eagerly read any books which came within his reach. In particular he was attracted to geography and astronomy, and at one time he cherished the idea of becoming a sea captain. At the age of fourteen he was put to work with a carriage-maker, named Daniel Sweat, in the village of East Corinth. Maxim tells us that he ‘used to work eight hours in the forenoon and eight hours in the afternoon’, with a one-hour dinner interval, and for this his wage was at the rate of four dollars a month, not paid in cash but largely taken in goods at the local store. He did not stay long, and soon obtained employment in the same trade with another master, under whom, although the hours were as long, his remuneration and treatment were much improved. Then, by turns, he found odd jobs as a bar-tender, wood-turner, and brass-fettler. He displayed also a liking for pugilism, in consequence of which he had several notable encounters. In 1864 Maxim joined his uncle, Levi Stevens, the proprietor of some engineering works at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where he acquired a knowledge of draughtsmanship and prosecuted his technical and scientific studies with ardour. Then he entered the service of a philosophical instrument maker, named Oliver Drake, of whom he thought and spoke highly, and to whom he attributed much of his later success. At this stage his inventive genius became fairly active, and, among other contrivances, he devised a ‘density regulator’ for equalizing the illuminating value of coal gas. This was not his first invention, but it was more ambitious than his previous efforts.
It was not, however, till the year 1878, when he became chief engineer to the United States Electric Lighting Company—the first to be formed in the United States—that Maxim produced anything of notable importance. Then he discovered and patented with great success a method of preserving and building up carbons in an incandescent lamp by heating the filaments electrically in an attenuated atmosphere of hydro-carbon vapour. An electrical pressure regulator, which followed, was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1881 and brought him the decoration of the légion d'honneur. Maxim had represented his company in Paris, but shortly afterwards he transferred his operations to London, where he opened a workshop in Hatton Garden. It was about this time that he directed his attention to gunnery and prepared a design for an automatic gun. 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. It was not the first rapid firing gun, since it was preceded by the Gatling (1862), the mitrailleuse (1867), and the Nordenfeldt (1877); but it surpassed these in consisting of a single barrel and possessing a completely automatic action. It fired at the rate of ten shots a second. For the development of the patents the Maxim Gun Company was formed in 1884, and in 1888 an amalgamation was effected with the Nordenfeldt Company. The works were at Erith, Kent, and were later (1896) absorbed in the firm of Vickers Sons and Maxim, of which Maxim was a director.
From gunnery Maxim turned his attention to flying, and during the period 1889–1894 produced a steam-driven flying-machine, which may be said, in a technical sense, to have flown, since, during a trial carried out at Bexley, Kent, in 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 was certainly a marvellous structure, compact with ingenious contrivances, and something like £20,000 was expended on its construction. It consisted of a large central plane with two curved side frames. Its engines and boilers weighed respectively 600 lb. and 1,200 lb., including casing, feed-water heater, dome, and uptake. For a horse power of 300, the total weight of the motive agency, 6 lb. per h.p., was not unreasonable, but, unfortunately, feed-water for an hour's trip added 6,000 lb. to the load.
Maxim had now permanently taken up his residence in England at West Norwood. He became naturalized and, in 1901, was knighted. After a strenuous career he died at Streatham 24 November 1916. Endowed with a powerful frame and strong constitution, he had laboured with untiring energy throughout a long life. His versatility, ingenuity, and skill were amazing. He loved to describe himself as a ‘chronic inventor’. In addition to his gun he invented a smokeless powder, maximite, the predecessor of cordite; and, among innumerable patents, at one time or another produced such diverse contrivances as a mouse-trap, an inhaler for bronchitis, a merry-go-round, an automatic sprinkler, a feed-water heater, and a process for obtaining cheap phosphoric anhydride.
Maxim was married twice: first, to Louisa Jane Budden, by whom he had one son and two daughters; secondly, in 1881 to Sarah, daughter of Charles Haynes, of Boston, Massachusetts, who survived him without issue.
[Sir Hiram Maxim, My Life, 1915; P. Fleury Mottelay, Life and Work of Sir Hiram Maxim, 1920; private information.]