The family grave of Sir Hiram S Maxim

            Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (5 February 1840 – 24 November 1916) was an American-born British inventor who moved from the United States to the United Kingdom at the age of 41. He remained an American citizen until he became a naturalised British subject in 1900. He was the inventor of the Maxim Gun – the first portable, fully automatic machine gun – and held patents on mechanical devices such as a mousetrap, hair-curling irons, and steam pumps. He laid 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.

In 1881, Maxim arrived in England to reorganise the London offices of the US Electric Lighting Company. By 1900, his visits back to the United States became infrequent and in that same year, Maxim became a naturalised British subject. In the following year, Queen Victoria bestowed a knighthood upon him. Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901 and the actual knighting was done by Maxim's "friend and new king, Edward VII."

Maxim was reported to have said: "In 1882 I was in Vienna, where I met an American whom I had known in the States. He said: 'Hang your chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility.'"

As a child, Maxim had been knocked over by a rifle's recoil, and this inspired him to use that recoil force to automatically operate a gun. Between 1883 and 1885 Maxim patented gas, recoil and blowback methods of operation. After moving to England, he settled in a large house formerly owned by Lord Thurlow in West Norwood where he developed his design for an automatic weapon, using an action that would close the breech and compress a spring, by storing the recoil energy released by a shot to prepare the gun for its next shot. He thoughtfully ran announcements in the local press warning that he would be experimenting with the gun in his garden and that neighbours should keep their windows open to avoid the danger of broken glass.

Maxim founded an arms company with financial backing from Edward Vickers to produce his machine gun in Crayford, Kent, which later merged with Nordenfeldt. Subsequently, part of the Barrow Shipbuilding Company purchase by Vickers Corporation in 1897, formed 'Vickers, Son & Maxim'. Their improved development of the Maxim gun design, the Vickers machine gun, after Maxim's resignation from the board in 1911 on his 71st birthday, was the standard British machine gun for many years. With arms sales led by Basil Zaharoff, variants of the Maxim gun were bought and used extensively by both sides during World War I.

In his later years Maxim became profoundly deaf, as his hearing had been damaged by years of exposure to the noise of his guns

West Norwood Cemetery, London

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / London / West Norwood (show map)

Taken on: October 18, 2014

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Victorian Park Cemetery

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Camera: Nikon Df, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, 100mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon Df
Lens:	AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm f/4G ED VR
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Focal Length:	100mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Aperture 3.5.1
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