I wish I hadn't read this . . .

because I love fairy tales and hate to be disillusioned.

In 1881, Hiram travelled to Europe to supervise the setting up of a European office. While there he visited the Paris Electrical Exhibition and travelled around Europe. It was during this tour that he received the advice to turn his hands to weapon making, and he took it to heart. He moved to Europe that year, leaving behind him his wife Jane and their children. Three years before he had concocted a bigamous marriage with a 15 year old girl named Helen Leighton, who bore him a daughter, though he was still legally married to Jane. Helen left him when she found out he was already married, but he simply moved on to Sarah Hayes, who accompanied him to London as his assistant/mistress. (They were married in 1888, though there is some question over whether he ever actually divorced Jane.) The two set up in West Norwood in South London, where Hiram began working on the invention that would make him famous. The Maxim machine gun.

http://www.headstuff.org/2014/11/hiram-maxim-engineer-death/