Hiram Percy Maxim

Biography

Hiram Percy Maxim (1869–1936) inherited a love of engineering from his father, Hiram Stevens Maxim, yet he carved his own path as an inventor dedicated to making technology kinder to everyday people. He patented the Maxim Silencer for firearms, improved motorcar horns and smoke control, and sought to reduce the noise of modern life without dimming its progress.

He also founded the American Radio Relay League, nurturing the amateur radio movement so hobbyists could collaborate across vast distances, and he wrote warmly to young people about the joy of experiments in wireless telegraphy. When he died in 1936, Hagerstown became the resting place for an innovator whose curiosity and community-minded spirit inspired generations of tinkerers.