Featured Book: A Genius in the Family, by Hiram Percy Maxim |
 Hiram
Percy Maxim, as a lot of RF Cafe visitors already know, was a pioneer
in the realm of amateur radio. He was the progenitor of the American
Radio Relay League (ARRL).
What might not be as well known is that he was the son of Sir Hiram
Stevens Maxim, a very successful firearms manufacturer. The
Maxim
Gun was the first self-powered, fully automatic machine gun, capable
of firing 600 rounds per minute. It played an important role in European
colonization in Africa. The mere sight of the gun struck fear in the
hearts of enemies. H. Percy Maxim's uncle
Hudson Maxim invented smokeless gunpowder and other revolutionary
explosives. You might say that firearms wealth funded the beginnings
of the ARRL and most of what amateur radio is today. Knowing this now,
can ardent anti-2nd-Amendment gun confiscation proponents or anti-gun
people anywhere in the world continue in the hobby in good conscience?
Wouldn't it be like buying S. Africa
Krugerrand
gold coins in spite of Apartheid history, or buying Nikes made in youth
sweat shops, or cellphones made in near slave labor conditions?
Posted April 2013 |
