Hudson Maxim

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Hudson Maxim (February 3, 1853 – May 6, 1927), was a U.S. inventor and chemist who invented a variety of explosives, including smokeless gunpowder. He was the brother of Hiram Stevens Maxim, inventor of the Maxim gun.

Prior to World War I Maxim wrote a book "Defenseless America", in which he pointed out the inferiority of American weapons to those of European countries. He also wrote a book "The Science of Poetry" about the nature and writing of poetry. In this work he contended that words, like chemical particles, had natural laws about how they could be combined into poetry, and that poetry perceived as excellent was in fact the poetry that conformed to those laws. He also argued that certain famous poets (William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth) had discovered those laws and put them to use in their poetry.

During his experimental career, he lost his left hand in a mercury fulminate explosion.

Sources:
Hudson Maxim, Reminiscences and Comments. By Clifton Johnson, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1924.
Defenseless America. By Hudson Maxim, Hearst's International Library Co. 1916.
The Science of Poetry and The Philosophy of Language. By Hudson Maxim, Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1910.
Dynamite Stories. By Hudson Maxim, Hearst's International Library Co. 1916.