Hiram Maxim

Hiram Stevens Maxim was born in America on 5 February 1840 and spent his early career patenting everything from hair-curling irons to mousetraps to steam pumps; he even laid claim to inventing the lightbulb. At 41 he moved to the United Kingdom, where he created the Maxim gun, the first automatic machine gun, a weapon that would alter warfare permanently. He experimented with powered flight, though his large aircraft designs never got off the ground. Around 1904 he designed the "Captive Flying Machine," a successful amusement ride that funded his research and stirred public fascination with flight. He became a naturalised British citizen in 1899, received a knighthood in 1901, and died on 24 November 1916.