Hiram Maxim didn’t set out to invent a killing machine. But a lifetime of tinkering and building eventually led Maxim, who called himself a “chronic inventor,” to design and build the world’s first portable and fully automatic gun.
As a boy in rural Maine, in the 1840s, gun ownership was common but Maxim didn’t encounter many firearms. As he wrote in his autobiography, people had stopped carrying muskets to church every Sunday, and often went hunting without them. He once went on a bear hunt carrying a hatchet, while a companion took to hitting the bear in the back with a rotten piece of wood. “It was the greatest ambition of my father's life to kill a bear, but he never succeeded,” Maxim wrote.
“ It is the most dreadful instrument that I have ever seen or imagined. ”
Maxim began his career in woodworking. In his first job, he worked 14-hour days building wheelbarrows, and made $4 a month. He was 14. He then took several jobs that involved painting decorative scenes on sleighs, carriages, and sewing machines—before eventually moving into brass work. He had a reputation for being obsessed with improving everything he encountered.
In childhood, Maxim built his own working chronometer and designed several elaborate mousetraps. Later, he patented his design for a curling iron and invented an automatic sprinkler that would be triggered by a fire, then notify the fire department via telegraph.
