author
Hiram S. (Hiram Stevens) Maxim
1840–1916
A prolific inventor on both sides of the Atlantic, he is remembered above all for developing the first fully automatic machine gun. His life also ranged through electric lighting, mechanical gadgets, and ambitious early experiments in flight.
1 Audiobook
Artificial and Natural Flight
by Hiram S. (Hiram Stevens) Maxim
About the author
Born in Sangerville, Maine, in 1840, Hiram Stevens Maxim grew up around practical mechanics and began inventing early. He worked in the United States before moving to England in the early 1880s, where much of his most famous work took shape; he later became a British subject and was knighted.
Maxim is best known for creating the Maxim gun, widely recognized as the first fully automatic machine gun. But his career was much broader than that single invention: sources credit him with numerous patents and with work on electrical devices, steam pumps, household gadgets, and other mechanical improvements.
He also pursued powered flight long before aviation became practical, building a huge experimental flying machine that showed how seriously he took the problem. By the time of his death in London in 1916, he had built a reputation as one of the great inventors of his era, admired for restless ingenuity even as his most famous invention left a complicated historical legacy.