New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-25
Yankee Born Inventor
Honored by England
and France
CREATED AUTOMATIC
SYSTEM OF FIREARMS
Many Devices Used in
Warfare His Ideas
Curbed Gas Peril

London. Nov. 24.-Sir Hiram Maxim,
inventor OF the automatic system OF
firearms. died at his home here early
this morning He was seventy-siJ years
old.
Hiram Stevens Maxim. OF old New
England Puritan stock, was born At
Sangerville, Maine, on February b.
1870: the eldest son Of Isaac Weston
Maxim and Harriet Stevens Maxim.
Younger son OF the same family ~
Hudson Maxim, OF Lake Hopatcong'
". j., a noted inventor. Hiram was eau
Gated az the local country school and at
the age of sixteen. was apprenticed 10
carriage maker. He worked at thst
trade in summer and attended school
in winter until he was twenty. Whlls
thus employed he made his hrst IN
vention, a tricycle. with wheels OF the
now familiar bicycle type, with wire
spokes.
Later, according to his own account
OF his career, he took up electrical
work, made inventions. and took out
many patents. He made all the APP
paratus and put up the first ILLUMINATED
fountains az Saratoga Springs, y. \:
He was the inventor OF the system OF
flashing which made incandescent
lighting possible. He discovered new
process of making phosphoric anhy-
bride. reducing the cost from S. to so
cents a pound. He made the first regu-
lator for keeping the pressure constant
in an electric lighting system quite in
dependently of the number Of lights on
the circuit This apparatus was exhlo-
tied in Paris in 1881, and Sir Hiram
was made a chevalier Of the Legion OF
Honor.
In 1888 he left France and went TO
London and commenced work on an
automatic gun.
when II was announced" said Sir
Hiram in the Scientific American
that an American engineer having a
little workshop in Hatton Garden. Lon
don, had made a machine gun that
would actually load and fire itself, at
the rate of 500 rounds In a minute,
from energy derived from the burning
powder, the public were incredulousi 1t
was altogether too good to be true, But
the little gun was very much in evil
dence, and every one came TO see II, from
the Prince of Wales down. Over 2Oo,-
600 rounds of fully loaded military
cartridges were used In showing the
gun to visitors.
New Explosives.
at that time the British government
was about to pay very large sum OF
money for the secret OF the German
slow burning brown powder. Many OF
the scientific men OF London had
analysed the German powder and found
that it contained no new element; they
could make an exact imitation OF II,
but the German powder produced low
pressures and high velocities and the
English imitation produced high press
ures and low velocities. Every one had
attempted to find out the secret by
chemical means, but Sir Hiram at
tackled il with his miscro1cope and
found that the German powder was
slow burning because the crystals of
nitre, although small, were many hun
dreds of times greater than in the
English powder. The mystery was
solved and the money saved.
"Sr Hiram followed this up by max
ing a hundred different kinds of powder
in single day, all Of different de-
grees of slow burning.
AZ AnG OtklHniH6 VI 1901 many
officials expressed their opinion that
the Whitehead torpedo could not be re-
lied upon in a heavy sea, and Sir
Hiram was requested to design a very
large gun for throwing aerial torpedces
through the air instead OF propeiling
them through the water. On May 30,
1885, he patented the gun desired and
proceeded 70 make one. The projeetile
was provided with delayed action
fuse working on the same plan as the
best fuses of to-day. The experiments
with this large gun led TO the manu-
facture OF the first cordite.
an the early spring Of 1888 Sir
Hiram was requested by some high
British officials TO turn his attention to
the manufacture Of smokeless powder,
and experiments were conducted
through the summer which led to pat
ents being taken November 8, 1888.
This was followed by many other pat
ents on various kinds OF smokeless
powder.
The Maxim Naval Gun
when a gun was required for firing
on torpedo boats Messrs. Armstrong
made a gun that could be fired by
four men about ten rounds In a minute.
II was very clumsy affair. Hotchkiss
made much better gun which four
men were able to fire nearly twenty
rounds in a minute, and this was fol-
lowed up by Nordenfeldt, who produced
an extremely light and handy gun that
four men succeeded in firing twenty
FIVE rounds in a minute"
The next gun to make an appearance
was Sir Hiram Maxirn's. This gun was
provided with a much improved system
of mounting, which did not give the
gunner any shock at all, and at the
French trials Sir Hiram, with no assist
ants, fired forty rounds in fifty seconds
making a record that has never been
broken.
In 1889 Sir Hiram took up the sub
jeet Of aerial navigation, and after con-
Quoting a great number Of experiments
and considering the problem from every
possible standpoint Il appeared TO him
that the best form OF flying machine
would be what is known to-day as an
aeroplane The machine that he devel-
oped and made was practically the same
as the best machines of to-day, excep,
that IL was much larger and was driven
by a steam engine instead Of petrol
engine.
One OF his last inventions was an ap
naratus for counteractinp the effect OF