Hudson Maxim papers 2147

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Manuscripts and Archives PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Hudson Maxim papers 2147

Table of Contents

Summary Information ...... 3 Biographical Note ...... 3 Scope and Content ...... 4 Arrangement ...... 5 Administrative Information ...... 5 Related Materials ...... 5 Controlled Access Headings ...... 6 Collection Inventory ...... 6

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Summary Information

Repository: Manuscripts and Archives Creator: Maxim, Hudson, 1853-1927 Title: Hudson Maxim papers ID: 2147 Date [inclusive]: 1851-1925 Physical Description: 2 Linear Feet Language of the English . Material: Abstract: Hudson Maxim (1853-1927) was an inventor and chemist best known for his work in the development of smokeless gunpowder and military explosives. This collection focuses on Maxim's attempt to float his inventions in England during the late , his anti-pacifist crusade and war-era activities, and his work at Lake Hopatcong.

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Biographical Note

Hudson Maxim (1853-1927) was an inventor and chemist best known for his work in the development of smokeless gunpowder and military explosives. He was born in Orneville, on February 3, 1853, to a poor but mechanically-gifted family. His older brother Hiram Maxim (1840-1916) invented the , the first truly efficient automatic , and his nephew, Hiram Percy Maxim (1869-1936), invented the silencer.

In the 1880s, Hudson Maxim worked in his brother's English gun factory, where he became familiar with a French version of smokeless gunpowder. He returned to the in 1888 as the American representative of the Maxim-Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company, Ltd., and began experimenting on his own with high explosives, securing his first patent in 1889. The contract with his brother expired in 1891, and Maxim established the Columbia Powder Manufacturing Company to manufacture dynamite at a plant near Farmingdale, New Jersey. When the company failed in 1893, he reorganized it as the Maxim Powder Company.

Maxim then began experimenting with smokeless powder and received several patents between 1893 and 1895. He then returned to England, where he attempted to set up companies to manufacture explosives, calcium carbide, and, at the suggestion of his nephew, Hiram Percy, automobile engines. None of these efforts was successful. Hudson laid the blame on Hiram's interference and a permanent rift developed - Page 3- Hudson Maxim papers 2147 between the brothers. Hudson sold his most important patents to E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. in 1897. and the company established a laboratory and summer home for him at Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. Maxim continued to produce inventions relating to explosives, ordnance, and torpedoes through the 1910s, but he also wandered down many blind alleys, including "Maxim-feast," a soybean-based food supplement, and "the Game of War," a supposed "improvement" on chess. Maxim helped organize the Maxim Munitions Corporation in 1915, hoping that it would assume the promotional burdens while he concentrated on inventing. He soon withdrew, however, when its managers tied his name to a scheme to turn water into gasoline.

After 1910, Maxim carved out a second career as a public speaker and inveterate writer of magazine articles and letters to the editor, freely venting his opinions on poetry and language as well as invention, progress, and public affairs. Beginning in 1914 he vociferously argued for American rearmament against a wide array of Progressive Era pacifists. After the war he concentrated on the development of the Lake Hopatcong area and on local affairs. He died on May 6, 1927.

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Scope and Content

While they include fragmentary material from Maxim's early life, most of the papers focus on three periods: his work to promote his inventions in England in the late 1890s, his anti-pacifist crusade and war-era activities, and his work at Lake Hopatcong. Also included is an incomplete file of Maxim's patents, as well as a collection of conflicting patents issued to other inventors. A file on Maxim's 1915 book Defenseless America, shows that the entire production was financed by P.S. du Pont, contrary to Maxim's public assertion that he was the only armaments maker urging rearmament. Other documented activities of this period include the Maxim Munitions Corporation, "Maxim-feast," "The Game of War," a Russian munitions contract, and Maxim's work for the Naval Consulting Board.

There is an extensive file of Maxim's writings on a variety of subjects, most importantly his attacks on pacifism and Prohibition. These include newspaper exchanges with progressives like Raymond Moley and the "savage lampoons," William Jennings Bryan, and Henry Ford. Maxim also produced a series of letters and articles on the course of the war and its weapons. The writings include a number of short stories and fables that may have remained unpublished.

Family correspondence comes from a variety of siblings and nephews, as well as his wife's parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Durban of , and describes both family and business matters. There are few letters from brother Hiram, who was shunned by both Hudson and his own son Hiram Percy, but several notes express Hudson's disgust at Hiram's sexual peccadilloes.

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Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by subject.

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Administrative Information

Publication Statement Manuscripts and Archives

PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library

Provenance The papers comprise a small body of material left in Maxim's Lake Hopatcong home at his death and subsequently purchased by Martin Wiener, a local industrialist and collector.

Existence and Location of Copies View selected items online in Hagley Digital Archives.

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Related Materials

Related Material Hudson Maxim Papers (MssCol 1918), Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.

Hudson Maxim photographs (Accession 1996.312), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

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Hudson Maxim papers (Accession 0509), Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

Hudson Maxim Papers (Accession 2154), Manuscripts and Archives Department, Hagley Museum and Library.

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Controlled Access Headings

• Inventors • Explosives industry • Patents • Personal narratives

Collection Inventory

Title/Description Instances Artificial diamonds, 1897 box 1

Automobile accident, undated box 1

Automobile engines, 1896-1900 box 1

Bureau of Ordnance, 1897-1915 box 1

Calcium carbide process, 1896-1898 box 1

Carnes Artificial Limb Company, 1915 box 1

Defenseless America, 1916 box 1

du Ponts, 1898-1923 box 1

Dynamite Stories, 1916 box 1

Enricht gasoline substitute, 1916-1918 box 1

Explosives and ordnance, 1888-1906 box 1

Family, 1875-1925 box 1

"The Game of War", 1916-1917 box 1

Graham, William H. and George, Patent attorneys, 1896-1916 box 1

Huber, James, Mr. & Mrs., 1895-1898 box 1

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Knowles & Maxim, 1881-1883 box 1

Lake Hopatcong, 1908-1921 box 1

Maxim, Hiram Percy, 1897-1916 box 1

Maxim, Hiram S. and family, 1875-1915 box 1

Maxim-Feast/Soybeans, 1918-1923 box 1

Maxim Munitions Corporation - Reports and papers, 1915-1918 box 1

Naval Consulting Board, 1915-1922 box 1

Neat (Charles) & Co., 1895 box 1

Odd Fellows, 1884 box 1

Patents: 12,660 Cartridge, reissued, 11 June 1907 box 1

Patents: 293,048 Steam cooker, February 5, 1884 box 1

Patents: 411,127 Method of producing high explosive, September box 1 17, 1889

Patents: 428,311 Detachable gas-check for projectiles, May 20, 1890 box 1

Patents: 465,280 Method of making nitrocellulose, December 15, box 1 1891

Patents: 474,778 Process of making nitrocellulose, May 10, 1892 box 1

Patents: 479,988 Method of restoring nitrating acids, August 2, 1892 box 1

Patents: 504,736 Cartridge with amorphous explosive shell and box 1 charge, September 12, 1893

Patents: 512,042 Process of making chlorite blas.ting powder, box 1 January 2, 1894

Patents: 526,752 Process of nitrating cellulose, October 2, 1894 box 1

Patents: 529,334 Fulminating compound, November 13, 1894 box 1

Patents: 538,618 Making exlposive rods or grains, April 30, 1895 box 1

Patents: 540,326 Cartridge and charge therefor, June 4, 1895 box 1

Patents: 540,327 Cartridge and cartridge charge, June 4, 1895 box 1

Patents: 544,924 High explosive, August 20, 1895 box 1

Patents: 547,222 Cartridge, October 1, 1895 box 1

Patents: 548,883 Gas check for projectiles, October 28, 1895 box 1

Patents: 548,884 Gas check for projectiles, October 28, 1895 box 1

Patents: 549,072 Detonating fuse, October 29, 1895 box 1

Patents: 549,088 Detonating fuse, October 29, 1895 box 1

Patents: 552,919 Cellular exlposive charge, January 14, 1896 box 1 - Page 7- Hudson Maxim papers 2147

Patents: 640,213 Process of making smokeless powder, January 2, box 1 1900

Patents: 641,787 Automobile torpedo, January 23, 1900 box 1

Patents: 677,527 Cartridge, July 2, 1901 box 1

Patents: 683,962 Making calcium carbide, October 8, 1901 box 1

Patents: 694,295 Cartridge, February 25, 1902 box 1

Patents: 946,943 Machine for perforating and forming cellular box 1 powder grains, 1910 January 18

Patents: 946,944 Torpedo boat, January 18, 1910 box 1

Patents: 951,445 Explosive compound, March 8, 1910 box 1

Patents: 956,813 Apparatus for producing a motor fluid, May 3, box 1 1910

Patents: 974,166 Apparatus for producing motive power, November box 1 1, 1910

Patents: 974,900 Explosive compound, November 8, 1910 box 1

Patents: 981,095 A-tube or liner for ordnance, January 10, 1911 box 1

Patents: 988,798 Apparatus for charging or loading projectiles with box 1 high explosive, 4-Apr-11

Patents: 988,799 Explosive, April 4, 1911 box 1

Patents: 988,885 Process of charging projectiles with high box 1 explosive, April 4, 1911

Patents: 988,886 Process for the charging of projectiles with high box 1 explosive bursting charges, 4-Apr-11

Patents: 1,005,052 Method of minimizing erosion in ordnance and box 1 preventing flareback, 3-Oct-11

Patents: 1,512,354 Liquid fuel for torpedoes, October 21, 1924 box 2

Patents - Other inventors, 1851-1903 box 2

Poetry and language, 1910-1923 box 2

Programs for lectures, 1912 box 2

Prout, Father John T., 1923 box 2

Reminiscences and Comments - Responses, 1924-1925 box 2

Russian-American-Asiatic Corporation, 1915-1916 box 2

Torpedo-proof ship, 1915-1917 box 2

Writings: Aeronautics, undated 1909-1918undated 1909 box 2

Writings: Atomic theory, 1889-1921 box 2

Writings: Automobiles, 1911-1912 - Page 8- Hudson Maxim papers 2147

box 2

Writings: Biography and character, 1900-1919 box 2

Writings: Bolshevism and socialism, 1913-1919 box 2

Writings: Chinese exclusion, 1918-1919 box 2

Writings: Economic, political and social issues, 1912-19l9 box 2

Writings: High explosives, 1909-1919 box 2

Writings: International arbitration, 1911 box 2

Writings: Inventions and progress, 1907-1919 box 2

Writings: Japan, 1912-1913 box 2

Writings: Mexico, 1905-1919 box 2

Writings: Miscellaneous talks, 1908-1917 box 2

Writings: Motion pictures, 1917-1919 box 2

Writings: Nationalization of armaments manufacture, 1915-1916 box 2

Writings: Perfume, 1913 box 2

Writings: Poison gas, 1915 box 2

Writings: Preparedness and pacifism, 1908-1917 box 2

Writings: Prohibition, 1915-1919 box 2

Writings: Spiritualism and religion, 1907-1915 box 2

Writings: Stories and fables, undated box 2

Writings: Warfare and weapons, 1908-1918 box 2

Writings: Warfare, Aerial, 1909-1915 box 2

Writings: Women's Rights, 1908-1915 box 2

Writings: , 1915-1919 box 2

Writings: The Youth's Companion, 1909 box 2

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