MAY'NARD, Enwmoi (1S13-91). An Ameri can dental surgeon and inventor, born at Madi son. N. Y., of Puritan ancestry. lie entered the rnited States Military Academy at West Point in 1831. but his delicate constitution caused him to resign and take up the profession of dentistry, a calling which lie followed more or less from 1S:16 to 1590, in the city of Washington. 1). C. In 1846 he made known his discovery of the great diversity of situation. form, and capacity of the maxillary antra. lle also exploited the existence of dental fehriles and demonstrated that sensitive dentine could be cut with less suffering to the patient by operating in certain directions than in the opposite ones: a fact sub demonstrated by the mierospopc. In 1538 he nit rodneed the method of filling the nerve of teeth with gold foil, including the nerve canals in molar and bicuspid teeth; and z.4.11.11 years later introduced the system into Europe. He became a member of the faculty of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, and of the National University of Washington. His first important mechanical invention in the con struction of firearms dates from 1845, in which par he patented it system of priming for tire :41111S. which practically superseded the percussion
en p. Iii sited States Government bought the right of use and manufactured nearly 50,000 rifles employing the new principle of ignition. Germany and one or two other Eu ropean powers also adopted his inventions in part. In 1851 he patented a breech-load ing rifle. afterwards known as the Maynard rifle, and five years afterwards adapted it to the use of the metallic cartridge, also an inven tion of his. la 1860 he patented a method of con verting muzzle-loaders into breech-loaders. Other important inventions in firearms were a method of joining together two rifle or shot barrels, which permitted the expansion or contraction of one barrel independently of the other (1868) ; an invention invaluable to sportsmen. and a mechanism for indicating at any time the D11112 her of cartridges in the magazine of a repeating rifle (1SS61. He was granted the Great Medal of Merit of Sweden and was appointed chevalier of the military order of the Red Eagle of Russia.