History of Sangerville, (Piscataquis County) Maine United States of America

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Hiram Stevens Maxim, inventor, was born in Sangerville, Maine, Feb. 5, 1840; son of Isaac Weston and Harriet Boston (Stevens) Maxim, His first ancestor in America emigrated from Kent county, England, in 1650, and settled in Plymouth, Mass. Hiram obtained a common school education, and in 1856 was apprenticed to a carriage manufacturer. In 1861 he had charge of a small shop in Dexter, Maine, and subsequently became connected with various iron works. He studied mechanical drawing at Fitchburg, Mass., and while employed by the Automatic Gas Machine company he designed a number of machines for carbonating air. He removed to New York city and took charge of one of the branches of work done by the Novelty Iron Works Shipbuilding company. He invented a gas machine that would carbonate air at a uniform density irrespective of the specific gravity of the material employed and the temperature of the atmosphere. These were the first and largest machines of the kind, and were used for lighting large buildings. In 1878 he turned his attention to electric lighting, and with Spencer D. Schuyler he began experimenting. He invented the first system for standardizing incandescent carbons by heating them electrically in an atmosphere of hydro-carbon gases, the system which afterward came into universal use by makers of electric lamps. He also invented the first machine for keeping the potential of electrical current constant, irrespective of the number of lamps used. In 1881 he went to England, and became the European representative of the U.S. Electric Light company in 1883. He now began a series of experiments on automatic self-loading and discharging firearms. He constructed a single-barrelled automatic gun, which loaded and fired itself by the energy derived from the burning powder, the recoil of the barrel and breechlock developing enough energy to work the mechanism of the gun. This gun was immediately adopted by the several governments and displaced all other machine guns. The gun was capable of firing 600 rounds a minute. An improvement over this, the 1 1/2-inch Maxim gun, fired a projectile weighing a little over a pound carrying an explosive charge, and was used during the war in South Africa with marked success. Maxim also invented a smokeless powder called "cordite," composed of nitro-glycerine and gun-cotton. During 1892-94 he conducted extensive experiments at Baldwin's Park, Kent, England, with a view of ascertaining the amount of power required to perform artificial flight with a screw and a?roplane. These were the first experiments made on a large scale, and furnished data of great importance to science. He was married to Sarah, daughter of Charles Haynes, of Massachusetts. He was elected a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Royal Society of Arts, and the British Association for the Advancement of Science; was made chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the President of France in 1881; received a high order from the Emperor of China, and was knighted by Queen Victoria, Jan. 1, 1901. At the Paris Exposition of 1900 he was awarded the Personal Grand Prix on Artillery.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Sangerville, (Piscataquis County) Maine

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