HIRAM MAXIM (5th. February 1840 - 24th.November 1916)

Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim was an American inventor who moved to the UK in 1881, later becoming a naturalised citizen and obtaining a knighthood. Although he experimented with and patented many inventions, one in particular stands out: the world's first fully automatic machine gun (1884), recoil-operated and water cooled. With the later perfection of "cordite" the weapon, adopted by all major powers, was to contribute most to the stalemate that was the Western Front for much of the Great War (in terms of the number of casualties however, it was artillery that was most lethal in that conflict). The "Maxim Gun" assured fame - and fortune - for its inventor.

A long-time sufferer of bronchitis, he patented and manufactured a pocket menthol inhaler and a larger "Pipe of Peace", a steam inhaler using pine vapour, that he claimed could relieve asthma, tinnitus, hay fever and catarrh. After being criticised for applying his talents to quackery, he protested that "it will be seen that it is a very creditable thing to invent a killing machine, and nothing less than a disgrace to invent an apparatus to prevent human suffering".

As a wealthy industrialist with suppliers of raw materials or components to source, I believe that his cameo appearance in Black Hearts And Blue Devils is eminently plausible. The scene in question involves Maxim (and his pipe!) involved in debate with none-other than the poet Francis Thompson, the subject of my last post/blog.

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