MAXIM SILENCER. A device, invented in 1908 by Hiram Percy Maxim, an American, for suppressing the sound of discharge of firearms. Attached to any tight-breech firearm, such as a rifle, it checked the sudden liberation of the powder gases into the atmosphere by imparting a whirling motion to them, which caused them to fly out from the central hole by centrifugal force. Their escape could thus not occur until they slowed down, at which time they escaped noiselessly. Mean while, the same mechanism that caused the powder gases to acquire a whirling motion also served as a series of acoustic resonating chambers, which acted to set up interfering resonance and trap the sound frequencies present.
Originally, the device was considered as a menace to public safety, since it was believed by many that it would chiefly serve criminals. Many of the States in the United States passed laws prohibiting its sale and use, and several countries prohibited its importation. However, this was due to the great public interest taken in the invention when it was first announced, and a lack of understanding of firearms. The arms used by criminals are almost invariably small arms, such as revolvers and pistols. The
revolver cannot be silenced by the Maxim Silencer because it is not a tight-breech mechanism. Having a cylinder and a barrel, and of necessity a joint between the two latter, a leak is created. When a silencer is applied to the muzzle of the barrel of a re volver, the powder gases and noise escape at this leak. The auto matic pistol cannot be silenced because of the mechanical noise made by the automatic breech mechanism. Only single shot pistols and rifles can be silenced by the Maxim Silencer.
The silencing of all forms of noises that issue from a pipe was later accomplished by the Maxim Silencer, and at the present time it is the accepted means for overcoming the noise of the exhaust of Diesel engines, gas and gasolene engines, steam engines, safety valves, air and steam releases and also the intakes or suctions of air compressors and blowers. Its construction permits gases to flow freely through, but sound is trapped and caused to dissipate itself inside the device.