William L. Maxson (1889-1947)
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1921 graduate of the U.S Naval Academy, Maxson resigned his commission in 1935. He established the W.L. Maxson Co. in New York City while living in West Orange. He is personally credited with nine inventions. Within his companies, another 72 patents were developed.
Maxson's best known invention is the gasoline price computing pump. Among his other inventions were a multiplying machine, toy building blocks, and various mathematical apparatuses. One apparatus, a "robot navigator" was used by airplane navigators to compute positions in flight. Howard Hughes used the "robot navigator" during his famous flight around the world in 1938.
During World War II, W.L. Maxson Co. developed and manufactured several important devices, including the robot navigator and the mounting system for multiple anti-aircraft guns. The men and women of the W.L. Maxson Co. were presented with the Army-Navy "E" Award for outstanding war production in September 1944.
During the war, it was "Tuba," as Maxson was known, who developed the idea of heating frozen cooked foods in airplanes ferrying troops overseas. He not only developed the first frozen dinners-later available in commercial flights as "Sky-Plates" and markets as "Strato-Meals"-but the conventional oven to heat them, the Maxson Whirlwind Oven. Today, these meals are known as "TV Dinners."
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