Beard of the Week XLVII: The Maxim Gun
This handsome beard (photo source), a very stylish and modern schnauzer,* belongs to American/British inventor Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840–1916). The hedge on nationality comes about because Maxim was born in Sangerville, Maine and lived in a number of east-coast cities, but in 1881 he took up living in London and evidently adopted British citizenship soon thereafter.† He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1901 for his contributions to the British military.
Inventing was what he did–the biography from World of Invention says he held 271 patents. He got tangled up with Thomas Edison about precedence over the incandescent lamp. His reputation has been secured by two inventions: the mousetrap and the automatic machine gun.
Of course, when it comes to something as iconic as the mousetrap, there will be qualifications. Those who proceed carefully tell us that the first mousetrap is due to inventor William C. Hooker, who got his US patent in 1894. Then in 1897 the British patent went to James Henry Atkinson for his "Little Nipper". But, ultimately, if was Maxim who invented the "traditional style" mousetrap with the spring-loaded bar triggered by the lever upon which one placed tasty morsels to entice the mouse to suicide. (Here's an interesting fact I tripped across concerning the "Little Nipper": "The Little Nipper slams shut in 38,000[th]s of a second and that record has never been beaten.")
But Maxim's great claim to fame, in his lifetime and after, was the invention of the Maxim Machine Gun, the first automatic machine gun (to distinguish it from the Gatling Gun). Most biographies repeat the anecdote about how Maxim was thrown off his feet as a little boy by the recoil from shooting a powerful rifle and that this is his stated inspiration for using the recoil momentum to drive the automatic loading of the weapon from its belt of ammunition. The gun could shoot an amazing 666 rounds per minute. (These days I'm confident that that "666" figure would not pass without comment.) Quoting again from the World of Invention:
Maxim's improvements in weaponry gave significant advantage to British forces during the Boxer Rebellion and the Boer War. Soldiers, grateful for the improvements, chanted: "Whatever happens, we have got/The Maxim gun and they have not!" Soon, the gun came into use in every major country. It was not until the perfection of tank warfare that the machine gun slaughter of World War I was successfully countered.
One has the impression that Maxim was quite a character. Occasionally in my reading I've come across mention of him and that mention is often accompanied by a satirical cartoon (for instance). Someplace in my shamble of notes I have some witty quotation attributed to Maxim, but you'll have to wait until I come across it again someday.
Instead, let's wrap up with this summary from the Encyclopedia of World Biography:
A gifted and versatile inventor, Maxim received 122 United States patents and 149 British patents. He devoted much time and money near the turn of the century to aeronautical experiments. An airship he built in 1894 to study the lift and thrust of various wing shapes and propellers actually rose from the ground, but he had not developed methods for controlling his machine in the air and did not achieve manned flight. He had, however, using an incredibly heavy, steam-propelled machine, proved that mechanical flight in heavier-than-air machines was possible.
Maxim was a brilliant, artistic, and accomplished man, although it was difficult for others to get along with him. He was opinionated and self-centered, and even his younger brother Hudson, also an inventor, found him impossible as a colleague. Twice married, Maxim had two children; his son, Hiram Percy Maxim, became well known as an inventor in his own right. Maxim died in Streatham, London, on Nov. 24, 1916.
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*Or "goatee" in the misguided contemporary vernacular.
†I haven't yet read any biography that makes much of a deal out of this citizenship change. None talk about any drama or profound reasons that he might have "renounced" his American citizenship; it sounds more as though he felt that if he was going to be living and working in England he should become a citizen. Of course, that may have been merely preparing the way for the later knightship.
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on Monday, 1 September 2008 at 21.47
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(Here's an interesting fact I tripped across concerning the "Little Nipper": "The Little Nipper slams shut in 38,000[th]s of a second and that record has never been beaten.")
it that a typo for "38 / 1000 of a second"??
if it is what the text reads, I must admit that thirty-eight-thousandths are an unusual unit, but how MANY of them. 76,000 of them (aka 2 seconds)??
curious in toronto
on Monday, 1 September 2008 at 23.29
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Well, the original quotation had "38,000s of a second", so I added the "[th]" to try to help the writer say what the writer meant to say. As for how many, it's difficult to say (obviously), but it sure sounds fast, doesn't it?
But now that you point it out, I'm not at all sure I have any idea what the writer actually intended.