Talk:Hiram Maxim

Reference format

Well written article! The convention is to add the punctuation before the reference. This needs to be fixed.BatteryIncluded (talk) 01:20, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Knighthood

The article states he was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1901. Seeing as that she died in January of that year, does anyone know if he was the last man to be knighted by Queen Victoria before her death? Is there a source for his 1901 knighthood and that it was Victoria who knighted him? 98.221.129.63 (talk) 09:57, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

You can see who was in the (new years) honours list by looking at the London Gazette online, where all honours are "gazetted". Ephebi (talk) 23:28, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

Flying machine

Lots of photos via this web page. London Borough of Bexley claiming copyright on them! Mjroots (talk) 20:36, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Silencer

Different articles on Maxim and his son credit each of them with inventing the silencer. Do we know which it was? I've always heard it was the son (confusingly also named Hiram Maxim). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.38.204.162 (talk) 22:58, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

Correct. Hiram Snr went deaf with testing his machine gun. So even if he had tried to develop a silencer, I doubt that he could tell if it worked! It was his son Hiram Jnr who developed the silencer, and the company he founded, still called Maxim, still does sound attenuation. RS include the ODNB and the Maxim co website. Ephebi (talk) 15:04, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

Article language

Hiram was born in US, but left his native country and became naturalized and died in England. His fortune and his reputation was made in Britain, which is the country he is most associated with. Because of this trans-Atlantic background the article should avoid local variants where possible, but the British English variant is most appropriate where there has to be a choice. Please discuss before changing spelling unilaterally. Ephebi (talk) 16:55, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

"British English variant is most appropriate where there has to be a choice." A typical, smug, and arrogant comment from a Brit. FYI, this article was originally written in American English back in 2003.

I'm not the least surprised in your obeservation though. Much less a country that steals other countries inventions (the machine gun most notably) and takes credit for them. I certainly do not see the article on Alexander Graham Bell being labelled as an American but then he wouldn't now would he because a bunch of Brit editors wanted to fix that even though Bell made his career, life and fortune in the USA. That is all that I have to say on this matter. Yoganate79 (talk) 21:39, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Please WP:AGF. Xenophobic outbursts do not address the merits or otherwise of the choice of the article language. Please discuss the merits of the choice first before reinserting. And if you feel that strongly about him please help us maintain his burial place in London - I will be visiting it again this weekend. Ephebi (talk) 08:55, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

William Cantelo Theory

Would there be a place in this article linking Maxim with William Cantelo an inventor from Southampton who disappeared just before Maxim showed up in America with his gun. It is hypothesized that there two people were one and the same. I can’t relate the whole story at the moment, but surely some reference to this ‘tale’ should be included even if to prove it erroneous. There is a news article here.Rifleman jay (talk) 07:13, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Adding a section relating to this theory mightn't be a bad idea. The BBC recently had an article about this theory as well, which can be seen here. Cyclonius (talk) 16:45, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

There's a lot of mentions in Maxim's autobiography about a man living in America and claiming to be him, making outlandish claims that would harm his reputation when proven false. --202.90.63.171 (talk) 14:00, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Maxim had an established family background, having got married long before Cantelo began work on his own machine gun. If they really looked so alike, this would be a case of impersonating an existing person, not creating a new identity. — Cheers, Steelpillow (Talk) 18:47, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Prononciation

Can someone write how to pronounce his name? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.7.120.26 (talk) 22:43, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

Hy-ram Max-im — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.29.18.168 (talk) 10:13, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

Lol, how is Maxim pronounced? [ma:xim] or [maexim]?

Introduction

"Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (February 5, 1840 – November 24, 1916) was an American inventor who moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 41. He remained an American citizen until he became a naturalized British subject in 1900."

All of this citizenship stuff shouldn't be in the introduction. It's practically irrelevant to this man's work and achievements, and frankly any normal person isn't going to be intrigued by it. To be honest, it looks like a load of americans are trying desperately to claim him as an american inventor, as if it really matters. Can't we move it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.147.84.17 (talk) 10:11, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

It seems to be back, this time with Wikipedia's unique and confusing habit of hyphenating citizenship, i.e. American-British. IMHO it's not particularly relevant (I'm British fwiw) and readers can see where he was born in the infobox, the article has the relevant stuff about where he lived and so on. Given that it adds neither clarity nor relevance I think it should go. --Vometia (talk) 06:18, 13 February 2023 (UTC)

In Popular Culture: Film

There's a bio-film starring Don Ameche as Hiram Maxim. It's entitled "So Goes My Love" (1946) It was adapted from Maxim's son's book, "A Genius in the Family: Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim Through a Small Son's Eyes". (See NOTE* below.)

See the IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038959/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

IMDb description: "Eccentric British inventor Hiram Maxim and his bride raise a son in late 1800s Brooklyn."

TCM description: "This charming and hilarious 1946 biopic about the life of inventor Hiram Stevens stars Don Ameche and Myrna Loy."

PLAYING ON TCM: 20-JAN-16 11:30 AM

• NOTE: At the WIKI page of the son of Hiram Stevens Maxims (Hiram Percy Maxim), it says: "Maxim wrote an amusing account of his youth in the book 'A Genius in the Family: Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim Through a Small Son's Eyes'. This book was adapted to the screen as "So Goes My Love".

WILL THE EDITORS PLEASE ADD ALL THIS TO HIRAM MAXIM'S WIKI PAGE.I DON'T KNOW HOW. ---Terry

Terry Cagney (talk) 17:11, 20 January 2016 (UTC) Terry Cagney

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