Hiram Percy Maxim

Hiram Percy Maxim was an American inventor, son of the machine gun pioneer Hiram Maxim, who worked in the early motor industry before becoming better known for other inventions. After studying mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he built an experimental internal combustion engine, and in 1895 he joined the motor vehicle division of the Pope Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1899, driving a gasoline-powered Pope Columbia, he won the first closed-circuit automobile race held in the United States. He also developed mufflers for internal combustion engines, using the same techniques as his firearm silencer, and he held several patents for motor vehicles. Outside transport he founded the American Radio Relay League in 1914 and the Amateur Cinema League in 1926, and he wrote Horseless Carriage Days about his years as an automobile pioneer.