Family
His brother, Hudson Maxim, was also a military inventor, specializing in explosives. They worked quite closely together until later in life, there was a disagreement on a patent of smokeless powder. The patent, Hiram claimed, had been put under the name 'H. Maxim,' and that because of this, his brother was able to stake a claim at the powder being his own. Hudson was a skilled and knowledgeable man, and sold armaments in the U.S., while Hiram worked mainly in Europe. Hudson had success in the States, which caused jealousy from Hiram (he lamented having "a double" of himself running around in the States). The jealousy and disagreements caused a rift between the brothers that would last the rest of their lives.
He married his first wife, Jane Budden, in 1867. Their children were: Hiram Percy Maxim; Florence Maxim, who married George Albert Cutter, and Adelaide Maxim, who married Eldon Joubert, Ignacy Jan Paderewski's piano tuner.
Hiram Percy Maxim followed in his father's and uncle's footsteps and became a mechanical engineer and weapons designer as well, but he is perhaps best known for his early amateur radio experiments and for founding the American Radio Relay League. His invention of the "Maxim Silencer" for noise suppression came too late to save his father's hearing. Hiram Percy would later author a biography on his father called, "A Genius in the Family." This biography contained about 60 anecdotes of Hiram Percy's experiences with his father throughout his early life (until about 12). Most of these short stories are incredibly funny and capturing; they give a reader an insider's (and child's) view on this magnificently brilliant man's personal and family life. The same family he would later abandon when moving to Europe (which would become a permanent move).
He married his second wife, Sarah, daughter of Charles Hayes of Boston, in 1881. It is not clear if he was legally divorced from his first wife at this time.
There is also a controversial case with a woman called Helen Leighton. She claimed that Maxim had married her in 1878 and that "he was knowingly committing bigamy" against his current wife, Jane Budden. In this "marriage," she claimed that Maxim had fathered a child by her (Romaine). The case was eventually dropped, at a settlement under $1,000 (the original amount asked for was $25,000), and Maxim put the case and near public humiliation behind him. Later in life though he did leave 4,000 sterling to a Romaine Dennison who may in fact have been the Romaine that Leighton claimed he had fathered. It is an unsolved mystery of Maxim's life.
Read more about this topic: Hiram Stevens Maxim
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“What we often take to be family values—the work ethic, honesty, clean living, marital fidelity, and individual responsibility—are in fact social, religious, or cultural values. To be sure, these values are transmitted by parents to their children and are familial in that sense. They do not, however, originate within the family. It is the value of close relationships with other family members, and the importance of these bonds relative to other needs.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“The family environment in which your children are growing up is different from that in which you grew up. The decisions our parents made and the strategies they used were developed in a different context from what we face today, even if the “content” of the problem is the same. It is a mistake to think that our own experience as children and adolescents will give us all we need to help our children. The rules of the game have changed.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“True spoiling is nothing to do with what a child owns or with amount of attention he gets. he can have the major part of your income, living space and attention and not be spoiled, or he can have very little and be spoiled. It is not what he gets that is at issue. It is how and why he gets it. Spoiling is to do with the family balance of power.”
—Penelope Leach (20th century)