Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Noble, Andrew
NOBLE, Sir ANDREW, first baronet (1831–1915), physicist and artillerist, the third son of George Noble, sometime lieutenant in the royal navy, of Greenock, Renfrewshire, by his wife, Geils Moore, only daughter of Andrew Donald, of Ottercaps, Virginia, U.S.A., was born at Greenock 13 September 1831. His father came of a Dumbartonshire family which had at one time owned property in the county. His mother belonged to an Ayrshire family. He was educated at the Academy at Edinburgh, and entered Woolwich as a cadet in the spring of 1847. In June 1849 he received a commission in the Royal Artillery, and served with that regiment for eleven years. Most of his military career, which was uneventful, was passed abroad. Always interested in mathematics and chemistry, Noble showed the scientific bent of his mind in various lines before he took up the special branch of inquiry in which he gained distinction. He returned to England at the beginning of 1858, and found the attention of the naval and military authorities occupied with the question of superseding the old smooth-bore guns by a new system of rifled artillery. It is a remarkable fact that no advance in gunnery had been made between the Napoleonic and the Crimean Wars, and the armed forces of the country still relied upon weapons of the type which had served Wellington and Nelson nearly half a century earlier. It was not until after the battle of Inkermann that (Sir) William George (afterwards Lord) Armstrong [q.v.] submitted to the War Office for trial a rifled breech-loading field gun, and began a controversy which agitated public opinion for several years. The subject exactly suited Noble's aptitude for patient experiment and accurate observation, and he lost no time in taking part in it. He was appointed secretary to various committees formed to investigate the new system of artillery, which was adopted officially by the services towards the end of 1858, a step which had the effect of accentuating rather than mitigating the acrimonies of discussion.
Noble began to be recognized more and more as a specialist, and it was not long before his ability attracted the notice of Armstrong, then in want of technical assistance for the Ordnance Company at Elswick, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the government orders for re-armament were being carried out. He offered Noble a partnership in the business, and in December 1860 the latter was gazetted out of the army as a captain, and threw in his lot with Armstrong. The Elswick Ordnance Company, as a result of arrangements complicated by Armstrong's official position of director of rifled ordnance, was kept at first distinct from the Hydraulic Engineering Works at Elswick. In 1863, however, when the government contracts were completed, the two concerns were amalgamated, and, as Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Company, Limited, the business had grown, even before the war developments of 1914, into one of the largest industrial enterprises in the country [see Whitworth, Sir Joseph]. When he joined the Ordnance Works Noble shared the management with George Wightwick Rendel [q.v.]; but he assumed active control of the entire concern when he became vice-chairman of the public company formed in 1882. On the death of Lord Armstrong in December 1900, he succeeded to the chairmanship.
Noble's new position was of undoubted advantage to the pursuit of his scientific inquiries. He had now opportunity and resources available for the study of gunnery and explosives, and he made full use of them. His observations and experiments followed the lines of those of T. J. Rodman, Sir Benjamin Thompson (Count von Rumford) [q.v.], and earlier investigators, in ascertaining the conditions which follow an explosion; but he carried the examination of fired gunpowder further than any of his predecessors. Confining the charge in a closed vessel of steel, he determined the pressures created and analysed the gases and residues. From these experiments it was found possible to record the pressures in the chamber of a gun, and the velocity of the projectile in its passage through the bore. These processes, which are now in common use at all gun trials and tests, were unknown before Noble's time, and the exact science of ballistics may be said to be due to his work. The practical issue of his experiments and conclusions was a complete alteration in the composition of gunpowder and in the design of guns. The old black powder was exchanged for an explosive of regular size and shape, which burned more slowly and gave more regular pressures. Improvements in the manufacture of steel assisted progress, allowing larger chambers which were calculated to stand heavier charges; while longer guns were designed, with breech-loading instead of muzzle-loading. The English services were slow to accept these novelties, but agreed eventually to the changes suggested, and about 1881 the modern gun, as we know it, was introduced into the navy.
Recognized as the leading authority upon his own subject, Noble often acted upon committees dealing with questions of guns and gunpowder. Apart from this he took little share in public life, confining his attention to his own business and his own studies. From time to time he published the results of his researches in papers contributed to the learned societies and institutions of which he was a member. In many of his experiments he collaborated with Sir Frederick Augustus Abel [q.v.], and two of his most important papers on ballistics were published, the first in 1875 and the second in 1879, in their joint names. In 1906 he collected his papers and lectures and reprinted them in a volume entitled Artillery and Explosives.
Noble combined to an unusual degree scientific ability with administrative powers. He controlled for many years a large business undertaking, was in daily attendance at his office or in the workshops, and was active in the superintendence of every detail. He proved himself a successful leader of men and commanded the loyal support of those who served under him. After his day's work he continued his technical studies in his library or laboratory, often far into the night. With it all he was full of human interests and enjoyed recreation thoroughly in many forms. His hospitality was unbounded. He was happy in his domestic circumstances, and his houses were the centre of large gatherings of relations and friends.
Noble was made a C.B. in 1881, and created a K.C.B. in 1893, and a baronet in 1902. He was also the recipient of many foreign decorations and scientific honours, including the royal medal of the Royal Society (1880) and the Albert medal of the Royal Society of Arts (1909). At the end of 1911 he ceased to take an active share in the management of Elswick, though he remained chairman of the Company to the end of his life. He died 22 October 1915 at Ardkinglas, a house in Argyllshire which he had built for himself some years earlier.
Noble married in 1854 Margery Durham, daughter of Archibald Campbell, a Quebec notary, by whom he had four sons and two daughters. His eldest son, George (born 1859), succeeded to the baronetcy.
[The Times, 23 October 1915; private information; personal knowledge.]