The February issue of QST includes a biography of ARRL co-founder and first President Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW, written by Chris Codella, W2PA. The Digital QST version of the article, available to members today, also includes four minutes of rare movie footage of Maxim filmed in the 1920s.

“Maxim was a man of diverse interests,” said QST Editor in Chief Steve Ford, WB8IMY. “One of his many pursuits was amateur filmmaking, which was a new hobby at the time. We discovered that Northeast Historic Film of Bucksport, Maine had a collection of Maxim’s movies. Thankfully, they’ve allowed us to reproduce a short sample.”

The black and white silent films typically portrayed Maxim’s family life and do not appear to include his Amateur Radio activities. “Even so,” Ford explained, “We managed to find footage that included such historic Amateur Radio figures as Clarence Tuska, K.B. Warner and Maxim himself, of course.”

“After seeing only still images of Hiram Percy Maxim for so many years, it is astonishing to view him as a living human being,” Ford said. “You see the man in motion, laughing with friends and family, enjoying a snack on a rowboat and even taking a dip in the ocean. You quickly gain the impression that Maxim was a dynamic individual, not just a fellow sitting in front of a radio.”

The film can also be viewed at the Multimedia page on the ARRL website at http://www.arrl.org/multimedia. (The website version is in Flash format and may not be viewable on Apple devices).