Editing Hiram Percy Maxim (section)

==Early years==
He was the son of Sir [[Hiram Maxim]], inventor of the [[Maxim Gun|Maxim Machine gun]]. He was the nephew of [[Hudson Maxim]], an inventor of explosives and ballistic propellants. He had two sisters, Florence Maxim, who married George Albert Cutter, and Adelaide Maxim, who married Eldon Joubert, [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski|Ignace Paderewski's]] piano tuner.<ref>{{cite news |title=Noise's Bogeyman |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742801,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930103659/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742801,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date= January 4, 1932 |accessdate=August 21, 2007 }}</ref>  In 1875, the family moved from [[Brooklyn, New York]], to [[Fanwood, New Jersey]], with his father joining the rest of the family on weekends.<ref>Maxim, Hiram Percy. [http://lateralscience.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-genius-in-family-by-hiram-percy-maxim.html ''A Genius in the Family''], Lateral Science. Accessed August 6, 2019. "We moved to Fanwood, New Jersey, in the spring of 1875. My father used to come out from New York on Saturday afternoons and remain with us until Monday morning."</ref> At age 17, Hiram was a mechanical engineering graduate, class of 1886, of the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (then a two-year course).<ref>[http://webmuseum.mit.edu/detail.php?t=people&type=browse&f=preferred_name&s=Maxim%2C+Hiram+Percy&record=0 "Hiram Percy Maxim"], MIT Museum</ref> He went to work for various electric utility companies in Boston.<ref>{{Cite web|date=September 2, 2018|title=A Diversified Mind: Hiram Percy Maxim|url=https://connecticuthistory.org/hiram-percy-maxim/|access-date=November 13, 2020|website=Connecticut History {{!}} a CTHumanities Project|language=en}}</ref>

Beginning in 1892, Maxim worked at the American Projectile Company of Lynn, Massachusetts, and tinkered nights on his own internal combustion engine. He admitted his ignorance of engine developments in Germany by [[Wilhelm Maybach|Maybach]], [[Gottlieb Daimler|Daimler]], and [[Karl Benz|Benz]], and he later explained that he "was staggered at the amount of time required to build one small engine."  Furthermore, he was appalled once he finally achieved combustion.  The engine "shook and trembled and rattled and clattered, spat oil, fire, smoke, and smell, and to a person who disliked machinery naturally, and who had been brought up to the fine elegance and perfection of fine horse carriages, it was revolting."<ref>Maxim, Hiram Percy.  Horseless Carriage Days.  New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1962 (1936), p. 12, 47.</ref>

In early 1895, Maxim visited Colonel [[Albert Pope]] in Hartford which led to his being hired for the Motor Vehicle Division of the [[Pope Manufacturing Company]].  His vehicle was not ready in time for the Times-Herald race in November, but Maxim was able to get to Chicago and serve as an umpire.  He rode with the Morris and Salom entry, the [[Electrobat]] II.

In 1899, with Maxim at the controls, the Pope Columbia, a gasoline-powered automobile, won the first closed-circuit automobile race in the U.S. at [[Branford, Connecticut]].  Columbia continued to produce gasoline cars until 1913, and was also a major manufacturer of early electric automobiles and trucks.

From 1902 through 1909, Maxim was largely focused on inventing, building, marketing, and selling firearm silencers.  He also developed mufflers for internal combustion engines using much the same technology.