Hiram Maxim invented the silencer in 1908 while inventing the muffler for automobiles. In 1910, he did a little patent protection and went into production. This is the model from 1910 and it originally cost $3-5 delivered.
No, it's not for sale. Also from this estate is a H&R .410 Handygun with stamps back to 1939, and a pre-WWII Romo Italian picklock.
I've owned some neat stuff, but this is probably the neatest ever. My long gone friends Ed and Bruce would greatly approve. Miss you guys, wish I could show this to you and go play with it. I'll be thinkin' of you when I go put some lead through it in a couple weeks.
The backstory is just as fascinating as the Maxim. Grandpa was a bootlegger and ran Canadian rum and whisky in the Pacific Northwest until Prohibition was repealed. Afterwards, he smuggled Russian diamonds. I acquired all three toys from the granddaughter, who is a customer of mine in my gun store.
The damage to the Maxim was done with a dremel. I suspect that it was done in the 50s, when they commercially hit the market, to clean up some rust. I have yet to decide what, if anything, I am going to do to the finish, grinding, and or bluing. I don't have a shipping tube, but I am going to recreate one. The tube itself was commonly used for all kinds of tooling bits and I may actually have one somewhere, color laser printer for the tube cover. Take me a weekend to assemble it.
