Hudson Maxim

Hudson Maxim (February 3, 1853 – May 6, 1927), was an American chemist and inventor who invented a variety of explosives, including an improved variant of smokeless powder. Thomas Edison referred to him as "the most versatile man in America". He was the brother of Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the Maxim gun, and the uncle of Hiram Percy Maxim, the inventor of the first commercially successful silencer.

Life and career

Hudson Maxim was born on February 3, 1853, in Orneville, Maine. Maxim started his career in 1881 as the publisher of Real Pen Work - Self Instructor in Penmanship, a book addressing the arts of calligraphy and penmanship, and the sale of special inks, pens, and other supplies related to penmanship. Later he joined his brother Hiram Stevens Maxim's workshop in the United Kingdom, where they both worked on the improvement of smokeless gunpowder. After some disputes, Hudson Maxim returned to the United States, where he received the first American patent for smokeless powder in 1889 and founded the Columbia Powder Manufacturing Company in 1891. He sold the company to E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in 1897 and went on to develop Maximite, a high explosive stable enough to pass through armor plate before detonating. Around 1900, DuPont, which operated powder works at Lake Hopatcong, built a laboratory for him at Landing, New Jersey.

Maxim wrote a book, Defenseless America, first issued in 1912, in which he pointed out the inferiority of the American defense system and the vulnerability of the country against attacks of foreign aggressors. At that time, the United States army according to Maxim, had a total strength of 81,000 men of which 29,000 were assigned to man coastal artillery batteries at major ports. This explains the need for the United States to use National Guard troops in its campaign against Mexico in 1916. The book was reissued in 1916 after his good friend, Elbert Hubbard, died on the RMS Lusitania when it was torpedoed by a German submarine. This event fueled his belief that the USA should improve its defenses and join the war against Germany on the side of the Entente.