Hiram Stevens Maxim
Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840–1914), American inventor living in England, notorious for inventing the Maxim gun, also worked on aviation as a member of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain.
Maxim wrote that "several wealthy gentlemen" approached him 1887 to ask if he could build a flying machine. He said he needed five years and ₤100,000. He used a whirling arm capable of 80mph in testing his designs. His experiments were well-publicized.[1]
Maxim developed a steam-powered aircraft with a 48' main aeroplane and five pairs of wings. He subsequently built a larger version 100' long and 35' tall. The 363-horsepower engine used petroleum to power two helical propellers at 400 rpm.[2]
On 31 July 1894, Maxim tested the latter craft, which briefly lifted from tracks up into the air, when a propeller broke and forced an immediate landing.[3][4] The wheels of this machine were fitted with dynagraphs to measure load.[5]
In 1896, he built the world's largest wind tunnel, 12' x 3' x 3', with a 100 horsepower steam engine capable of producing 50mph wind.[6]
He testified on the future of flight before a subcommittee of Britain's Committee of Imperial Defense.[7]
In 1909, Maxim left his munitions company for a new aeronautics company called the Grahame-White, Blériot, and Maxim Company with ₤200,000 total authorized capital.[8]
Chanute reprinted a letter from Maxim to the New York Times in November 1890:[9]
I would say that among the large number of societies to which I belong in England, the Aeronautical Society is one, and need I say that I am the most active member? At the present moment experiments are being conducted by me at Baldwin's Park, Bexley, Kent, England, with a view of finding out exactly what the supporting power of a plane is when driven through the air at a slight angle from the horizontal. For this purpose I constructed a very elaborate apparatus, provided with a great number of instruments, and arranged in such a manner that I can ascertain accurately the 'efficiency of a screw working in air. the amount of power required to drive a screw, the amount of push developed by a screw, the amount of slip, and also the power required for propelling planes through the air when placed at different angles, as well as to ascertain the friction and all other phenomena connected with the subject. I have been experimenting with motors and have succeeded in making them so that they will develop I horse power for every 6 lbs. My experiments show that as much as 133 lbs. may be sustained in the air by the expenditure of 1 horse power; of course. it is premature now to express any opinion; still, if I am not very much mistaken, and if some new phenomenon, which I do not understand, does not prevent it, I think I stand a fair chance of solving the problem, and I think I can assert that within a very few years some one--if not myself, somebody else--will have made a machine which can be guided through the air, will travel with considerable velocity and will be sufficiently under control to be used for military purposes. I have found in my experiments that it is necessary to have a speed of at least 30 miles per hour, that 50 miles is still more favorable, and that 100 miles would seem to be attainable. Everything seems to be in favor of high speed.
Whether I succeed or not, the results of my experiments will be published, and as I am the only man who has ever tried the experiments in a thorough manner with delicate and accurate apparatus, the data which I shall be able to furnish will be of much greater value to experimenters hereafter than all that has ever been published before.
Patents applied for by Hiram Stevens Maxim
- Patent DE-1890-59879
- Patent GB-1889-10359
- Patent GB-1889-16883
- Patent GB-1891-19228
- Patent GB-1892-19254
- Patent GB-1897-10620
- Patent GB-1903-15748
- Patent GB-1904-3120
- Patent GB-1908-20038
- Patent GB-1911-8220
- Patent US-1884-295784
Letters sent by Hiram Stevens Maxim
Links
- Hiram Stevens Maxim on Wikipedia
- Maxim's autobiography, My Life (1915) at the Internet Archive
- Malcolm W. Browne, "100 Years of Maxim's 'Killing Machine'", New York Times, 26 November 1985 ("Maxim's airplane might well have flown before that of the Wright brothers, had it been powered by something lighter than a steam engine.")
References
- ↑ Hallion, 2003, pp. 140–141.
- ↑ Banet-Rivet, 1898, L'Aéronautique, pp. 205–206.
- ↑ Hallion, 2003, p. 143.
- ↑ Zahm, 1944, p. 330. "In 1894 Maxim carried over 10,000 pounds off a level track in a steam multiplane having ample power but defective control. It flew some 300 feet with a crew of 3 men. With all accessories (boilers, pumps, generators, condensers, cooling water) his engines weighed but 8 pounds per horsepower. Had he copied Goupil's version of Henson's transport plane, he might have inaugurated the grand sport of exhibition stunts before the gasoline engine was well developed by the automotive industry."
- ↑ Scott, 1995, p. 102.
- ↑ Hallion, 2003, p. 144.
- ↑ Hallion, 2003, p. 145.
- ↑ "Maxim leads air company", New York Times, 29 March 1911.
- ↑ Octave Chanute, Progress in Flying Machines (1894), Aeroplanes: Part XVI. Hallion, 2003, p. 140 reproduces some of this from Chanute. Database searches don't immediately reveal this letter; perhaps due to unreliable scanning.
