Hiram Maxim’s hired shop supervisor was a man named Louis Silverman. He was a skilled engineer, who was treated rather poorly by Maxim, and whose contributions were systematically understated. One of the most interesting projects Silverman partook in was the design of a self-loading pistol in 1896. A patent was taken out in the names of both he and Maxim, but the lack of discussion by in Maxim’s papers makes it clear that the idea was Silverman’s.

The pistol was simple and efficient; easy to make and quite forward-looking. However, it was crippled by the choice to use cartridges too powerful for its simple blowback operation. Today we are taking a look at the particular massive example made in .455 Webley. The other two regular Maxim-Silverman pistols are rather large, and this one is a true behemoth…