INVENTORS AND THEIR GUNS: HIRAM PERCY MAXIM
Hiram Percy Maxim, son of Hiram Maxim - inventor of the machine gun, is best known for his line of silencers (suppressors). Maxim developed the first viable firearm suppressors at the turn of the 20th century. He was granted a series of patents between 1909 and 1920 and began selling his designs through Maxim Silent Firearms Company (which would later become the Maxim Silencer Company) in 1908.
In 1906, Maxim began experimenting with a series of designs to moderate sound. Initially he experimented with valves, vents and bypass devices. He eventually finalised his basic idea and developed a series of practical suppressor. He believed that the propellant gases leaving a firearm’s muzzle could be whirled to create a vortex thereby slowing them sufficiently to prevent them making a noise as they left the muzzle.
Maxim’s first experimental silencer can be seen in image #3, it used an offset snail shell-shaped chamber and valve to trap and swirl the muzzle gases in an effort to slow their travel. Maxim’s results with this design were encouraging and he continued to develop the idea of swirling the gases. In June 1908, he filed his patent for an ‘improvement in Silent Firearms’. Granted in March 1909, this design used a series of curved vanes or blades to create a series of miniature vortices to capture and slow the muzzle gases.
Maxim’s March 1909 patent ( source)
The Model 1909 Maxim silencer was not produced in great numbers and the vortices caused the suppressor to heat up rapidly. The curved internal vanes proved expensive to manufacture but the Model 1909 could reduce a .22LR pistol’s report by up to 30 decibels. In October and November 1908, Maxim filled two more patents to protect an improvement on his earlier design. This new design became the Model 1910 which still relied on Maxim’s gas vortex theory but had a simplified the vane arrangement. The Model 1910 also moved away from having a centrally aligned internal channel and instead used an offset (or eccentric) design. This had the added benefit of not obstructing the weapon’s sights. The majority of rifles of the day did not have threaded barrels so Maxim developed a coupling device which was placed over the muzzle and offered an external thread. One of the main drawbacks of the Model 1910 was that it could not be disassembled for cleaning. Instead it was recommended that hot water should be run through the silencer’s channel, a Maxim sales brochure stated that it would take 30 minutes to clean the silencer this way.
Maxim’s May 1910 patent ( source)
The Maxim Model 1910 proved commercially successful and was offered in a number of calibres from .22 up to .45 calibre. The thinner Model 1910 was less effective than the earlier 1909 and when fitted to a .22LR pistol the Model 1910 reduced the weapon’s report by up to 25 decibels. Both the 1909 and 1910 models proved to be fairly robust and moderately effective suppressors.
Maxim’s book 'Experiences with the Maxim Silencer’ compiled letters from sportsmen and hunters who had used his silencer. In the book’s forward Maxim explained that he developed his system in order to “meet my personal desire to enjoy target practice without creating a disturbance. I have always loved to shoot, but I never thoroughly enjoyed it when I knew the noise was annoying other people.”
The cover of Maxim’s book ‘Experiences with the Maxim Silencer’ (source)
The Maxim Silencer Company sold the silencers via mail order, shipping them in cardboard tubes. A .22 calibre silencer cost $5 while larger calibre silencers cost $7. Maxim’s silencers were expensive when adjusted for inflation these prices equate to approximately $120 and $165 respectively.
In 1912, with commercial growth slow, Maxim turned his attention to the military market and began designing a silencer which could moderate the report of a Springfield M1903 rifle. In 1909, the Ordnance Corps had tested Maxim’s first silencer. Colonel S.E. Blunt, the commanding officer of the Springfield Armory, reported that the silencer eliminated approximately 66% of the noise and 67% of the recoil normally made when a rifle was fired.
Patent drawing for Maxim’s coupling design for attaching a Model 1912 silencer to a Springfield M1903 rifle ( source)
The Maxim Silencer Company developed the Model 1912 and subsequently the further improved Model 15 which Maxim christened the 'Government Silencer’. In images #2 and #4 above Maxim himself can be see with Springfield M1903′s equipped with his silencers. Encouraged by this early military interest Maxim envisioned a military silencer being useful in roles such as sniping, guard harassment and marksmanship training. He believed that the increasing number of American men joining the military from cities who lacked experience in shooting were struggling to master the .30-06 M1903 because of its loud report and recoil. Maxim felt that using a silencer would prevent recruits being intimidated by their rifle and help them to learn the fundamentals of marksmanship faster. Maxim also developed a larger silencer suitable for suppressing a Benét–Mercié M1909 Machine Rifle, he can be seen firing one of these in image #1.
Maxim’s military silencers, along with those of Robert A. Moore, were tested by the US Army in 1912. The Springfield Armory’s report in July 1912, found that the Moore silencer was more accurate and had a better attachment system. The Maxim silencer, however, was more durable and could withstand more prolonged rapid fire. Army Ordnance recommended the purchase of 100 of both silencers for field trials with two silencers be issued per company for use by sharpshooters in conjunction with two star-gauge (accurate barrelled) rifles and the M1908 and M1913 Musket Sights. This was not the large scale contract that Maxim had hoped for believing silencers might become standard issue, however, the funding was not available and the idea behind the silencers use was not fully embraced by the military. The US military deployed silencers in small numbers during the 1916 expedition against Pancho Villa and later when the American expeditionary Force was deployed to France in 1917.
A Springfield M1903 outfitted with an M1910 Maxim Silencer (source)
While these silenced rifles could not prevent the supersonic crack which occurred down range they were able to mitigate muzzle flash and the rifle’s report. In 1917-18 a plan to deploy silencers with rifles with accurate star-gauged barrels was developed. An order for 9,100 was placed although part of this order was fulfilled before the end of the war the exact number of silencer equipped rifles manufactured remains unknown. After the war these rifles were offered for sale through the Civilian Marksmanship programme in 1920, others were given to National Guard units for training purposes while the remainder were declared obsolete in March 1925. In 1967, a Frankford Arsenal report on silencers found that Maxim’s silencer for the M1903 performed very well, even when compared to more modern designs.
While the First World War offered a brief boom in sales of silencers this did not last and Maxim’s company continued to diversify after the war. The Maxim Silencer Company manufactured not only firearm silencers but also sound moderating devices for everything from automobiles to naval engines; from plant machinery to building silencers which were fitted to heating and air conditioning systems. Hiram Percy Maxim died in 1936. The company began to move away from firearms silencers in 1925, instead concentrating on industrial and automotive sound moderators. Public interest in firearm suppressors was quashed in 1934 by the National Firearms Act which required a prohibitively expensive $200.00 tax stamp (approximately $3,500 today). Although no longer family owned, the company continues to specialise in industrial sound moderating devices and technology.Y