| Sir Hiram Maxim |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT HIRAM STEVENS MAXIM | |
| 1840 births | |
| 1916 deaths | |
| people from maine | |
| american inventors | |
| british inventors | |
| firearm designers | |
| burials at west norwood cemetery | |
| national inventors hall of fame | |
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Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim ( February 5 , 1840 – November 24 , 1916 ) was the inventor of the Maxim Gun in 1881 , the first portable, fully automatic Machine Gun , and the ubiquitous Mousetrap . He also experimented in powered flight, but his large aircraft designs were never successful. However, his "Captive Flying Machine" Amusement Ride became a staple of British fairgrounds. BIRTH Maxim was born in Sangerville, Maine in the United States Of America . He became an apprentice Coach builder at the age of 14 and ten years later took up a job at the machine works of his uncle, Levi Stephens, at Fitchburg, Massachusetts . He subsequently worked as an instrument maker and as a draughtsman. CHILDREN His children include: Hiram Percy Maxim ; and Percy Maxim, who married George Albert Cutter. 1 INVENTIONS Maxim is also credited with inventing the common mousetrap and, as a long-time sufferer from Bronchitis , he also patented and manufactured the "Pipe of Peace", a Menthol inhaler. Over the years he was involved in several patent disputes with Thomas Edison . One of these included the Incandescent Lightbulb . EMIGRATION Maxim emigrated to England in 1881 (by which time he'd given up trying to sell his bulb when it became clear Edison had won) and became a Naturalized Briton in 1899 . Queen Victoria Knight ed Maxim in 1901 for his inventions, many of which had military applications. Maxim founded an armaments company to produce his machine gun in Crayford , Kent , which was later bought out by the Vickers corporation in 1896 , becoming 'Vickers, Son & Maxim'. Their updated version of the design, referred to as the Vickers Gun , was the standard British machine gun for many years. Variants of the Maxim gun were used extensively by both sides during World War I . His brother Hudson Maxim was also a military inventor, specializing in Explosives . GRAHAME-WHITE, BLERIOT, AND MAXIM COMPANY In 1911 he headed the newly formed Grahame-White , Bleriot , and Maxim Company, founded with the two aviators and two hundred thousand pounds of capital. 2 DEATH Maxim died in London and is buried in West Norwood Cemetery . His son Hiram Percy Maxim followed in his father and uncle's footsteps and became a mechanical engineer and weapons designer as well, but he is perhaps best known for his early Amateur Radio experiments and for founding the American Radio Relay League . 3 Hiram was a mechanical engineering graduate of the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology . PATENTS
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