The title of the book is "The Chemistry of Powder & Explosives". He was a prof at MIT. Wrote the book in 1941 at the request of the US gov to help with the war effort.
FWIW, the guys with Phd's(North American ones) in this topic believe that maple is the wood to use for BP. The reason being that the pore size from tree to tree is more uniform & uniform chem make up. The one's from Japan say use charcoal from coconut hulls(rare in Minnesota & Wisconsin).