“Such was really the case, because I find that my application for a
patent for a smokeless powder, consisting of nitro-glycerine and gun
cotton, was filed at the patent office about fourteen days ahead of any
other, and Sir Richard Webster, in speaking for the government in the
celebrated case of Nobel against the Government on smokeless powder,
said: ‘H. S. Maxim is the first man to make a smokeless powder with
nitro-glycerine and gun cotton. This powder was taken out to the States
as much as eight or nine years ago, shown at Springfield, and put into
competition with all other forms; and, according to the printed reports
of the time, it was said to be superior to all others at all points,
and I may say that the powder has not been improved on to any extent,
as all the leading powders of to-day are practically the same as that
invented by him at that time.’
“I was the first man to show a thoroughly good smokeless powder in the
United States. Having succeeded in England, I took my guns abroad.
Switzerland was the first country where I had a competitive trial with
other makers. I was asked to fire at a dummy battery of artillery, at
thirteen hundred yards, for one minute; but, as a matter of fact, I was
only engaged half a minute in actual firing, when it was telephoned
that I had technically killed three-fourths of the men and horses. I
thought, perhaps, that I ought to have killed the whole of them, but
the general said with great enthusiasm: ‘No gun ever made has ever done
anything like that. It is the most marvelous thing that has ever been
done. It is simply amazing. A little gun weighing only fifty pounds
puts a battery of artillery out of action in half a minute, at thirteen
hundred yards.’
“I next took the gun to Italy, where I won another victory, and then
returned to England. I received very large orders from all these
countries, and the gun is now in use, I may say, nearly all over the
world. These guns are being made not only by our own company, which has
many factories in England, but by the British Government, by Ludwig
Loewe, of Berlin; by Krupp, by Armstrong and by the United States
Government at Washington. The company with which I am connected is a
very large one, and we make about sixty varieties of rapid-firing and
automatic guns. We are also makers of very large guns, builders of
battleships, etc. I have also made guns for flying aerial torpedoes,
by the use of compressed air and gas. About ten years ago I conducted
a series of experiments at Baldwin Park, Bexley, England, with a view
of ascertaining how much power is required to perform artificial
flight. These experiments were on a much larger scale than had ever
been attempted before, and excited a great deal of interest in the
scientific world. Lord Kelvin, at the Oxford meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science, Lord Salisbury in the
chair, spoke in the highest terms of these experiments. He was very
enthusiastic at what he had seen at Baldwin’s Park. He said that the
work was all exceedingly well done, that the experiments were conducted
with great care, and that they were very creditable to me.”