William Cantelo

[1] Cantelo became an engineer and, in the 1870s, owned a shop on French Street in Southampton and a yard in Northam, employing up to 40 people.

[2][dead link‍] Beneath the pub was a tunnel where Cantelo spent much of his time, turning it into an underground workshop.

[3] Cantelo used the tunnel underneath the Old Tower Inn for his experiments and was later joined by his two sons, both engineers themselves.

Locals reported hearing noises coming from the vicinity, but the family kept their work a closely guarded secret.

[2] An American inventor, Hiram Maxim, had moved to London from the United States in 1881 and perfected a rapid-fire machine gun.

Cantelo's two sons happened across a photograph of Maxim, whose similarity to their father led them to believe that he was still alive and had assumed a new identity.

[2] The family's belief that Cantelo re-emerged under a new identity is inconsistent with accounts of Maxim's early life.

A facial expert who compared the images of Cantelo and Maxim highlighted that there were visible differences between the two men.