This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is our American Stories.

And up next, our regular contributor, Ashley Lubinsky, who's a former co-host of the Discovery Channel's Master of Arms.

She's the former curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum and is a co-founder of the University of Wyoming College of Law's Firearms Research Center.

Here's Ashley.

Most people recognize the name Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim for his invention of the machine

gun.

However, I think a lot of people would be surprised to know that his story is so much more

than just that one invention.

During his life, Maxim held over 140 patents, including those for curling irons, mouse

traps, steam pumps, powered flight, and even the first automatic fire sprinkler.

But the most random of them all is his claim to have invented the light ball.

If you know your traditional American history, then you know, or I guess think that you know, that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. And he had this back and forth rivalry with Nikola Tesla.

However, that's only part of the story. And it happens so often. It's so much easier

to make one person the hero in the story when in reality there were a lot of players. But

this story is so interesting, I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more press. And that was that

there was a feud between Hiram Stevens Maxim and Thomas Edison, which at least for Maxim verged on levels of obsession.

Maxim was born on February 5th, 1840 in Maine, and as a teenager, he worked in a lot of different fields,

including machine work, which is why he's so eclectic in his inventions.

But as kind of a random tangent, Maxim did invent two types

of inhalers for a range of sinus-related illnesses. He suffered from a lot of sinus-related illnesses,

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