The Double Life of a Gun Runner - William Cantelo AKA Hiram Maxim - Machine Guns

It may be some time before we build a transporter like the one in Star Trek, But what if teleportation has already been invented?

This is the case of William Cantelo, who was designing a water-cooled machine gun. Cantelo was already a successful inventor with several English patents. He was the landlord of the Old Tower Inn, at the end of Bargate Street in Southampton, England, where also he lived with his family.

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In a tunnel, which started under the Old Tower Inn, and continued under the Arundel Tower next door, Cantelo established his workshop.

Only his sons were invited there to see the new automatic weapon, which in public he called, "the maxim gun". But the public did hear the weapon during testing, mostly on Saturday afternoons, when the muffled sound of rapid gunfire leaked from beneath Arundel Tower.

For years, Cantelo had been locking himself, into his subterranean lab.

Then Cantelo told his family, he needed to take a "business holiday", about three months, in order to peddle his new weapon. He took the gun with him. He just had to visit his workshop once, before departing. A half a year later, when he still had not returned, his sons broke into the lab door, which was bolted from the inside. But they found nothing. Literally everything had been stripped from the workshop. All the inventions. All the tools. All except for the workbench itself, stained and scarred, which would have been too heavy for one man to move. Cantelo would never return.

Coincidentally, another inventor appeared in England, shortly after Cantelo's disappearance. His said his name was Hiram S. Maxim, and claimed to be from U.S. He sold his newest invention to the British government. A rapid-fire machine gun. Fully automatic, and water-cooled.

He made the news, along with engravings of his weapon, and of his portrait. When the sons of William Cantelo saw these images in the newspaper, first they cried, "Our gun!" Then they shouted. "Our father!" The resemblance was more than uncanny. He was staying in Waterloo, the paper said.

Whenever Mr. Maxim ran into a resident of Southampton, he would often be hailed as Cantelo. But he would always avoid any conversation.

The Royal Armory was shown a photograph of Cantelo, posing next to his machine gun. The authorities confirmed, the weapon appeared the same as the Maxim gun.

When in the United States, Hiram S. Maxim had led a life which almost duplicated Cantelo's. He was the same age. He was a successful inventor, with a string of American patents. A hair-curling iron. A steam pump. A mousetrap. And he published a scientific paper, claiming to have developed a technology, to be used for teleportation.

Mr. Maxim was credited with inventing the weapon. This American Hiram S. Maxim, remained in England the rest of his life, and was buried there. He died in 1916. Funeral services were held without the benefit of clergy, according to his will. This is also stated in the will of Mr. Cantelo. But Cantelo's body has never been found.