Hudson Maxim papers 2147 This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 14, 2021. Description is written in: English. Describing Archives: A Content Standard 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 - Page 2 - Hudson Maxim papers 2147 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 1890s, his anti-pacifist crusade and war-era activities, and his work at Lake Hopatcong. ^ Return to Table of Contents 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, Maine on February 3, 1853, to a poor but mechanically-gifted family. His older brother Hiram Maxim (1840-1916) invented the Maxim gun, the first truly efficient automatic machine gun, 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 United States 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. ^ Return to Table of Contents 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 London, 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. ^ Return to Table of Contents - Page 4- Hudson Maxim papers 2147 Arrangement Arranged alphabetically by subject. ^ Return to Table of Contents 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. ^ Return to Table of Contents 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. - Page 5- Hudson Maxim papers 2147 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. ^ Return to Table of Contents 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 - Page 6- Hudson Maxim papers 2147 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