The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-07
Hiram Maxim, of Hartford, Will Go Abroad This Month to Show His Device to
 Army Experts.
PRACTICES IN HIS HOME
Wife and Son Also Enjoy Shooting Without Waking the Baby Sportsmcn Anxious for
 the Weapon.

Hartford, Dec 6,-After exhaustive tests of his device for noiseless shoot ing Hiram Percy Maxim Is preparing to show 1t to foreign military experts. He will go abroad the latter part Of this month and expects to satisfy Eu- ropean governments that he has solv- ed the problem of concealns firing force from an enemy,
 One of the most interesting demon- stratlons Mir Maxim has made with his device Is the establishment of a shooting gallery In his home in this city.
 A target Is set up in the fireplace in the dining room and back of it Is box of sand to receive the bullets Position is taken for shooting in the library, 30 or 40 feet away, and through wide doors nice range is secured
 Mir. and Mrs Maxim and their eight year-old son, Hamilton, constantly use this gallery. The boy shoots with a light ,22 calibre rife and Mir, and Mrs. Maxim use ,22-calibre automatic, a somewhat larger and heavier gun, The boy has a score of 39 out of possible 30. and Mrs. Maxim very often gets q bul's-eye Mir Maxim has to shoot straight to beat his son. It is great fun for all hands.
 Mir. and Mrs. Maxim have a baby a little girl, and the firing although done at night when Mir Maxim is at home, has never yet awakened her. So 1t is a 1 fact that one can practice marksman- ship In his own house without waking the baby.
 1 For his experiments in the use of the I weapon In war Mir Maxim has obtain ' ed the standard rifles of practically all | countries in the world, and the muller
 has been used on each. In his demon stratons abroad he will probably use ! the Mauser rifle of the German army,
 which Is recognized as a standard in
 Continental Europe and Asia
 I Mir. Maxim gave an exhibition of his I silencer before the Technology club of
 Hartford this week In the rathskeller | of the Hotel Heublein. The silencing l device is a steel cylinder about eight | inches long and an inch and a quarter l in diameter. In this cylinder arc hol- | low rings. the purpose of which Is to
 retard the exist of the smoke and cX- | plosiye gases, A reverse rotary motion is given to them, and they thus escape gradually. The mechanism by which
 this result is achieved is secret The cylinder is screwed to the mu2zle of rife, the point of contact being to one side of tho center of the cylinder, so that it may not interfere with the sights.
 MT Maxim says tho device will cf- fcctually prevent the locating of iir- ing party A bullet may he heard
 while on its way, and when it strikes something 1t is likely to be heard but by that time 1t is too late to tell where ! the enemy was, It was feared at first that if the bullet noise could be done away with the invention might be of no practlcal value However, tests
 have shown that this bullet noise does | not nullify the value of tho invention.
 A firing party had been sent out and ! the question then was as to where the | firing came from, when five shots were 1 fired at time one Immediately after I another. one of those present said 1 they came from the south another | from the west In not single case l could the concealed firing party be 1 properly located Not one guess was correct and no two of the gucssors
 agreed in the Eucsscs
 If bayonet and silenccr were both
 attached to a gun tho full length of
 the bayonct could not be used, but both would not be nerded at the same
 time the kind of fight requiring one 1 not calling for the use of the other.
 Mn. Maxim is in receipt of letters
 from sportsmcn all over the country
 making inquiries as to when the si- | lcncing device can he obtained He | has received such letters from as far
 away as Oregon and Texas. The de- vice has been perfected for sporting
 guns, and they are in process of man
 ufacture. The invention and patents are owned by the Maxim silent Fire
 arms company, New Jersey corpora - l ton, with a capital of s25O,000 No
 stock is for sale as it is all held by
 Mr. Maxim and those who have aid-
 ed him in developing the invention