Editing Basil Zaharoff (section)

===Maxim machine gun===
[[Hiram Maxim]]'s automatic machine gun was a significant improvement over the then-current hand-cranked rotary barrel models. Maxim's gun was better than anything that Nordenfelt sold at the time. Zaharoff is believed to have had a hand in the events surrounding Maxim's attempts to demonstrate his invention between 1886 and 1888. In the first, Maxim's and Nordenfelt's machine guns were to be demonstrated at [[La Spezia]], Italy, before a distinguished audience which included the [[Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa|Duke of Genoa]]. Maxim's representatives did not show up; a person unknown had waylaid them with a tour of La Spezia's nocturnal establishments leaving them unfit for purpose the next morning.

Round two took place at [[Vienna]], where the exhibitors were instructed to modify their weapons to comply with Austrian Infantry-standard sized cartridges. After shooting a few hundred rounds, the [[Maxim gun]] became erratic before stopping altogether. When Maxim took one weapon apart to see what had happened, he discovered that they had been sabotaged, but it was too late to repair. A third demonstration also took place in Vienna, and here the gun worked perfectly but again an unknown person went through the gathering of senior officers, convincing them that the workmanship required to produce such a marvellous weapon could be achieved only by hand, one at a time, and that without the means for mass production, Maxim could never produce machine guns in sufficient quantities to satisfy the needs of a modern army. Nordenfelt and Zaharoff had won. Maxim, who knew he had a good product, successfully sought a merger with Nordenfelt, engaging Zaharoff as their principal salesman on a huge commission.

Under pressure from [[Rothschild banking family of England|Rothschild]] and [[Vickers]], Thorsten Nordenfelt merged with Maxim's in 1888 to form the [[Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company]]. Two years later, a bankrupt Nordenfelt was forced out of the company.