MAXIM, Sir Hiram S. Artificial and Natural Flight.

Pioneers of Flight and Engineering

MAXIM, Sir Hiram S. Artificial and Natural Flight. London: Whittaker & Co. 1908.

8vo. Publisher’s purple cloth lettered in gilt to upper board and spine; pp. xv, [i (blank)], 166, [2], black-and-white photographs and diagrams throughout; sunning to boards, especially to spine, pushing to foot of spine, minor spotting along top-edge; small numerical sticker affixed to upper corner of front free endpaper; very good; manuscript corrections in black ink to p. x likely in Maxim’s hand, presentation inscription to Dugald Clerk to front free endpaper (see below).

First edition, inscribed by the author to Sir Dugald Clerk, known for his pioneering work on the two-stroke engine, bringing together two significant figures in the development of early twentieth-century engineering and flight.

American-born British inventor Sir Hiram Maxim (1840–1916) is best remembered for his invention of the automatic machine gun; he also held patents for hair-curling irons, a mousetrap, and steam pumps, and was an early pioneer of electric lighting (a rival of Thomas Edison). Aviation was also a long-lasting passion. In the preface to the present work he writes: ‘it was in 1856 that I first had my attention called to the subject of flying machines. My father, who was a profound thinker and a clever mechanician, seems to have given the subject a great deal of thought, and to have matured a plan identical with what has been proposed by hundreds since that time.' (p. v)

In 1894, Maxim jumped a full-scale steam-powered aeroplane off the ground, but this model would later be discarded because of the weight of the engines. Aeronautics significantly developed between Maxim’s trial flight and the publication of Artificial and Natural Flight: the Wright brothers successfully flew their glider in 1902, and in 1903 they fitted a four-cylinder engine into one of them. In the year of publication (1908), Henri Farman managed to complete the first European 1-km closed circuit flight. Maxim provides a photograph of Farman’s flying machine, remarking that ‘as the length of the machine is not very great, it requires very close attention on the part of the man at the helm to keep it on an even keel; if one is not able to think and act quickly, disaster is certain.’ (pp. 112–3)

This copy has been inscribed to the engineer and inventor Sir Dugald Clerk (1854–1932). His invention of The Clerk Cycle (Two-Stroke Engine) in 1878, created a separate charging cylinder which laid the groundwork for the supercharger (first used in a plane in the late 1910s). Clerk’s invention indirectly helped address many of the problems that Maxim, and other early aviators contended with..

Brockett 8214.

SKU: 2126002