Hiram Stevens Maxim

Hiram Stevens Maxim

Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (February 5, 1840 – November 24, 1916) was an American-born inventor who emigrated to the United Kingdom at the age of forty-one, although he remained an American citizen until he became a naturalized British subject in 1900. He was the inventor of the Maxim Gun – the first portable, fully automatic machine gun – and an elaborate mousetrap. He laid a claim to inventing the lightbulb, and even experimented with powered flight, but his large aircraft designs were never successful. However, his "Captive Flying Machine" amusement ride, designed as a means by which to fund his research while generating public interest in flight, was highly successful.

Read more about Hiram Stevens Maxim:  Birth, Family, Emigration and Knighthood, Profession, The Maxim Machine Gun, Inventions, Flying Machines, Philosophy and Religion, Death, Books, Patents

Famous quotes containing the words stevens and/or maxim:

    “The greatest poverty is not to live
    In a physical world, to feel that one’s desire
    Is too difficult to tell from despair.”
    —Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    “Let this great maxim be my virtue’s guide—In part she is to blame that has been tried: He comes too near that comes to be denied.”
    —Mary Wortley, Lady Montagu (1689–1762)