The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-18

November 16s 1914. To the Editor of The s.Evening Far
 ber,.' Bridgeport, Conn
 sir:-In your issue of November 10th there appeared an editorial. wherein you have no doubt censcien- tiously attempted to solve. the prob lem as to whether the credit for the invention of smokeless powder belongs to Sir Hiram Maxim or to me-
 You mention certain persons in Bridgeport, who remember that Hi ram s. Maxim and visited that city with some s1nokeaess powder once upon a time.
 Barnes, claims to have met Hiram and me in Bridgeport at that time. and states that made no claim to being the inventor of the snokeless powder submitted. Consequently, MT. Barnes evidently concludes from that fact that Hiram was the inventor of the first smokeIess powder, as witness the Barnes statement which you quote.
 s.In speaking of his connection with both brothers, William Barnes as- serts most emphaticaI1y that there is no question that Hiram was the i'm ventor of the first smokeless pow der.'s ss@
 You also state in your editorial that the controversy will likely be settled definitely in Bridgeport within short period. If you will publish this com munication it will enable me to help you a good deal in the settlement of the controversy In order to inspire a thorough and purposefuI investiga- ton of the subject, hereby offer and Isagree to pay you the sum of $500, if, on looking into the matter, you shall find that anything ever invented by Hiram s. Maxim, either in srnokeless powders or high explosives, has ever been adopted into the service of and used by any government on earth. E also offer and agree to pay the same sum to MT. William Barnes, if he shall be able to prove his own statement true,-that stthere is no question but that Sir Hiram Maxim was the inventor of the first snokeless power
 Mr. Barnes the same offer that do you,-that if he shall be able to find that Sir Hiram Maxim ever invented anything in smokeless powders or high explosives that has been adopted into the service and used by any gov sum of $500.
 Also, I will pay any one else the same sum who shall be able to find that Sir Hiram Maxim has ever in- vented anything in explosive mater ials which has been adopted and used L. tthe world.
 The following statement, quoted I from a booklet published by the E.. I. DuPont de Nemours Powder Com pany in 1910, to refute the preten- sions and claims of Sir Hiram Maxim concerning our smoke1ess powder, l will help to elucidate this matter:
 .It must be evident to anyone read ] ing the article in Engineering and Sir Hiramss letter, that they are the IT., 1 the vanity displayed by the author may be pardoned, yet it is due those who become interested in this dis I cnssion to know that Sir Hiram Max I inns worldwide reputation was won I by the inventian of an automatic gun, and not by any triumphs in the do- main of powder. Candor and truth Ecompel the statement that he never had anything to do with the manufac- ture of explosives of any character on Iii a commercial scale, and nothing in- li vented by him in explosives has been adopted by or employed in the service
 of any Government on earth.'
 The brother to whom MT. Barnes refers as having worked in Bridgepori with Hiram in the electric light busf.
 ness was not I, but a younger brother
 who now lives in Maine.
 |. The following are the facts abou
 the smokeIess powder brought ts
 Bridgeport by Hiram and me:
 Tn England, in the autumn of 1888 obtained from Frenchman in the
 employ of the Maxim Nordenfelt Co. who had been showing the Maxim
 gun in France, a small sample O
 French Lebe1 srnoke1ess rifle powder
 This, on examination, proved to b,
 merely guncotton dissolved and dried
 The material was very easily dupli
 cated.
 Hiram, later on, put castor oil int.
 the powder as deterrent to slow it 1 as he claimed. But as the powde
 was already too slow, this invent ol was 3. step backwards, and no gov
 ernment has ever used castor oil il its smoke1ess powder
 Neither Sir Hiram s. Maxim nor invented the smokeIess powder sub
 rnited in Bridgeport, for it was mere s.t ly duplicate of the smoke1ess pow tI der already made by the French. The French Government had mad z and used the same powder withou castor oil for several years before Si