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.]
NORFOLK, fifteenth Duke of (1847—1917). [See Howard, Henry Fitzalan-.]
NUTTALL, ENOS (1842–1916), bishop of Jamaica, primate and first archbishop of the West Indies, was born at Clitheroe 26 January 1842, the eldest son of James Nuttall, farmer and builder, of Coates, St. Mary-le-Gill, Yorkshire, by his first wife, Alice, daughter of William and Martha Armistead, of Aynhams, in the same parish. His education was such as his mother and the parish school could give him, but he developed powers of self-tuition, and being placed by his father in charge of a farm, gave his leisure to learning. James Nuttall was a Wesleyan, and Enos, while constant in his attendance at church, became at seventeen a ‘local preacher’ of some power. Anxious for mission-work abroad, he applied to the Rev. George Osborn [q.v.], secretary of the Wesleyan missionary society, was accepted, and, after a period of training under the Rev. Andrew Kessen, was posted by the society to Jamaica, for which he sailed on 2 December 1862 in his twenty-first year, to work as a layman.
While, however, his brother Ezra (1850–1915) won distinction in South Africa as a Methodist minister, Enos offered himself in Jamaica for the ministry
413
