Another Adventure in Amateur Radio

Over at the Captain's Journal, Herschel Smith is discussing the current state of the debate on suppressors, otherwise popularly known as "silencers" for guns.  Smith:

“The [sound suppressors] were a victim of the success of his marketing,” said Knox Williams, president of the American Suppressor Association, which is working with the NRA on this issue. Williams referenced Hiram Percy Maxim, who first used the term in the early 1900s when he invented what he referred to as the Maxim Silencer. The term later caught on with legislators and regulators.

“He labeled it as a silent firearm, and people took it for gospel,” Williams said of Maxim.

Now, I have to admit that the suppressor debate is none to interesting to me. I will not use one, perhaps because I have grown used to putting on ear protection. But I am generally in favor of any loosening of restrictions and this seems like a no brainer to me.

What startled me however was the mention of a name that I am very familiar with: Hiram Percy Maxim, aka "The Old Man" of the American Radio Relay League. The American Radio Relay League, or ARRL, is the premier representative of the Amateur Radio community in the United States, and represents our interests before the FCC and the International Radio Union. One of T.O.M rants can be found here. The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems.

I did not know that Maxim invented the silencer.  You learn something new every day!