So, we are finishing a series of articles about a man and a machine gun, united by one name - Maxim. Hiram Stevens Maxim, who was born on February 5, 1840 near Sangerville in Maine, entered the history of technology as a completely extraordinary person, and, and this should be emphasized, extraordinary in everything. At school, he did not finish even five grades, and took over all the skills of working with wood and metal from his father. He began to invent since childhood: he invented a chronometer, a spiked wheel for a bicycle and, just imagine, a mousetrap! Works, like any true American, have changed a great many. He mastered the professions of a carpenter, a coachman, worked as a painter, a contractor, was even a professional fighter and … a bartender. The latter profession suited him in particular: he himself did not drink, and was physically strong enough to expose drunk customers from the bar. But he never became a soldier, and according to the law. Since his two brothers were killed in the Civil War, he was not subject to conscription according to American law.
And what did they put Maxim's machine guns on …
Everyone who knew him noted that Hiram solved the technical problems that arose before him very quickly, but often "invented the wheel" at the same time, and he was not at all interested in production and sales issues. At the enterprise of his uncle Stevens, he was only engaged in coming up with all sorts of improvements and it all ended with the fact that he was fired. No, it's not that they were bad. On the contrary, good and profitable. But my uncle did not have time to re-equip his production for them.
But losing his job, Maxim also found it easily. He especially loved steam engines. He invented improved pressure gauges, valves, flywheels, steam regulators and burners for them. To ride with his son on the Hudson River, he built a boat with a steam engine "Flirt" seven meters long, which is quite a lot for homemade products. In 1873, Maxim decided to finally go into business and began by convincing A. T. Stewart, the richest man in America at the time, to support him. His first success was gas lighting for a post office in Manhattan, a resort in Saratoga, and a hotel in Atlanta. And he also designed a gas floodlight for a locomotive, which also found its use.
One of the options for the shield cover of the Maxim machine gun, which completely covered the shooter.
However, gas was becoming a thing of the past, so from 1876 Maxim turned to electricity. His developments made such a strong impression on New York financiers that they gave him money for a new company, and Maxim, in turn, began to deal with an incandescent lamp. And it so happened that Thomas Edison himself became his main rival, who literally miraculously received a patent for an incandescent lamp before Hiram Maxim. And he did not forgive Edison for his victory, but he also answered him in the same way and called him "the merchant of death."
Nevertheless, his lamps also worked, so in the fall of 1880 Maxim's company organized electric lighting for the first building in New York. And yet, business is business. Seeing that they could not beat Edison, Maxim's partners sent him on a tour of Europe so that he, with his inventive passion, did not interfere with them making money in proven ways. However, his salary remained more than decent, but the resentful Maxim, as he left the States in 1881, never returned there.
Scottish Highlanders with a Maxim machine gun.
True, at the Paris World Exhibition he was expected to succeed, which he did not expect: the organizers of the exhibition dedicated an entire issue of the exhibition magazine to his achievements in electrical engineering. And according to its results, he, together with Edison, was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.
It was then that it occurred to him to start creating a rapid-fire weapon. Already in the fall of 1882, its first drawings appeared, and 13 months later, its first operating model, most of all similar to a two-stroke steam engine. But the powder gases played the role of steam in it, the trigger was an analogue of the valve drive, and the shutter was its piston. As for the recoil energy, it was accumulated in the spring, and then it sent the bolt, which locked the breech and ignited the capsule of the cartridge inserted into the barrel.
Projections of the Maxim airplane.
The production of the Maxim machine gun marked the beginning of a new stage in the industry. After all, it was required for him to produce 280 interchangeable parts with high precision, so that even in England, the “workshop of the world,” they were just learning how to observe such quality standards. Maxim immediately telegraphed to his brother Hudson in America and asked him to urgently hire and send several American mechanics to Europe by the first steamer. And then, together with the Vickers brothers, he founded the Maxim Gun company, the authorized capital of which was £ 50,000. Maxim did not repeat the previous mistakes in the Edison case and patented almost every detail of his machine gun, so it was almost impossible to get around his patents. To further increase the effectiveness of the novelty, Maxim, together with his brother, also developed a recipe for smokeless powder based on cotton soaked in nitroglycerin and castor oil. This is how the famous cordite was also born - also the creation of Maxim, although not of him alone.
And he managed to get lucrative orders and start making big money on his machine gun, even if not immediately, but business and invention are so opposite to each other that Maxim eventually chose the latter. The merger of his company and Nordenfeld's company was carried out, after which Maxim immediately returned to his usual way of life and completely immersed himself in invention.
One of the Maxim aircraft.
He was especially interested in … aircraft heavier than air! And since they were interested, then with his money it was quite possible to build such an apparatus for him, which was done in 1894. And in the same year, financial losses on his experiments amounted to £ 21,000, in 1895 - another £ 13,000. The next year, Vickers simply bought out the share of Maxim and other shareholders, which made the company's profit immediately amounted to £ 138,000. Thus, he acquired not only the rights to the machine gun, but also to the airplane created by Maxim.
Through consistent improvements …
On July 31, 1894, the first tests of Maxim's airplane took place, on which he worked a lot and in which he invested a lot of money. The device weighed three tons and had a very impressive size. According to his plan, he was supposed to lift a pilot and two passengers into the sky.
As a propulsion system, specially designed and very light steam engines with a total capacity of 180 horsepower were mounted on it. The device was supposed to take off, accelerating on rails half a kilometer long, but it was never able to rise into the air. The reason was the lack of a wing profile, so its lift was negligible.
Notice the huge propellers!
Maxim decided that it was all about the number of wings and installed additional bearing surfaces, and one of the options had three pairs of them. But all that his apparatus was able to achieve was to rise 30 centimeters into the air and fly about 60 meters. In addition, as soon as the apparatus broke away from the rails, it immediately became clear that it was uncontrollable in the air. It turned sideways, it hit one of the screws on the ground and froze across the rails, breaking the chassis and the bottom plane.
A photograph of the creator of this airplane in the circle of his assistants gives an idea of the size of his brainchild.
Since by this time Maxim had already spent more than 200 thousand dollars on this machine, and could not achieve a stable flight, he abandoned his hobby for aviation, and remained in the history of technology as the "father of the machine gun", but not the airplane.
But this photo clearly shows the propulsion system of the airplane and its transmission.
Interestingly, his work undoubtedly influenced H. G. Wells, who completed his novel When the Sleeper Wakes up in 1899, which describes the airplanes and airpiles of the future, roughly reminiscent of Hiram Maxim's airplane.
One of Percy Maxim's patents for an axial bore vortex muffler.
Interestingly, the son of Maxim, Hiram Percy Maxim, also followed his father's path and invented a silencer for cars, and then a silencer for firearms, patented in 1909. Maxim's design was very original: he used curved blades to make muzzle gases rotate inside the muffler. At the same time, they cooled down, and their pressure dropped. The result was an expensive construction, and besides, such a muffler quickly heated up with frequent shooting. Therefore, in modern designs, to slow down gases, baffles are used that do not absorb too much heat.
Advertising silencer P. Maxim.
Another feature of the Maxim muffler is its asymmetry. By placing the center line of the muffler channel at the muzzle of the firearm, he ensured that it did not cover the front sight on either the rifle or the pistol. He is also known as the pioneer and inventor of American radio, as a co-founder of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). That is, if nature "rested" on the son of H. Maksim, then not so much, although he still did not manage to surpass his so famous father!
Well, Maxim himself in 1900 became a British citizen and received a knighthood from the hands of Queen Victoria - in recognition of his merits in the success of the campaign in Sudan (1896-1898) and in the Battle of Omdurman (1898).
"Peace pipe" - H. Maxim's inhaler.
In 1911, his companions became disenchanted with Maxim's achievements in aviation, insisted on his resignation and even changed the name of the company from Vickers, Sons and Maxim to Vickers Ltd. But even after his resignation, now Sir Hiram Maxim continued to do his favorite thing. He invented a primitive sonar that harnessed the energy of steam and a steam inhaler that helped many millions of people around the world who suffered, like himself, from bronchitis.
This outstanding man died in 1916 at the height of the First World War. Obituaries for his death were short and appeared in only a few British and American newspapers. This is not surprising, because the newsmen were now much more interested in reports of hundreds of thousands of war victims who died on the battlefields, including from the fire of Hiram Maxim's machine guns.
