political view monarchy and nobility are strongly opposed. Even the modified form of absolute monarchy which has existed in some Western countries, while it preserves, perhaps even strengthens, the social position of a nobility, destroys its political power. Under the fully-developed despotisms of the East a real nobility is impossible; the prince raises and thrusts down as he pleases. It is only in a commonwealth that a nobility can really rule; that is, it is only in a commonwealth that the nobility can really be an aristocracy. And even in a democratic commonwealth the sentiment of nobility may exist, though all legal privilege has been abolished or has never existed. That is to say, traditional feeling may give the members of certain families a strong preference, to say the least, in election to office. We have seen that this was the case at Athens; it was largely the case in the democratic cantons of Switzerland; indeed the nobility of Rome itself, after the privileges of the patricians were abolished, rested on no other foundation. (W. H. F.)
Authorities.—Selden’s Titles of Honor (London, 1672) remains the best comparative account in the English language of the nobility of various countries up to his date. For England see E. P. Shirley, Noble and Gentle Men (1860); Gneist, Adel und Ritterschaft in England (Berlin, 1853); Sir George Sitwell, “The English Gentleman,” in the Ancestor (No. 1, April 1902); and J. H. Round’s works, passim. A. C. Fox-Davies’s Armorial Families (Edinburgh, 1895, and subsequent editions) represents an unhistorical attempt to create the idea of a noblesse in the United Kingdom. For the origin and growth of the nobility in France, see A. Luchaire, Manuel des institutions françaises (Paris, 1892), and P. Guilhiermoz, Essai sur l’origine de la noblesse en France au moyen âge (1902); for their later status and privileges, A. de Tocqueville, L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856 ff.), and H. A. Taine, Les Origines de la France contemporaine, pt. 1., L’Ancien Régime (1875 ff.). For the German and Austrian nobility, see v. Strantz, Gesch. des deutschen Adels (2nd ed., Waldenburg, 1851); von Maurer, Über das Wesen des ältesten Adels der deutschen Stämme (Munich, 1846); Rose, Der Adel Deutschlands und seine Stellung im deutschen Reich (Berlin, 1883); G. Meyer. Lehrbuch des deutschen Staatsrechts (5th ed., Leipzig, 1899), and the Gotha Genealogische Taschenbücher. For the Italian nobility see the eight magnificent folio volumes of Count Pompeo Litta, Celebri famiglie italiane, continued by various editors (Milan, 1819–1907); for Spanish, Fernandez de Béthencourt, Hist. genealógica, t. i.-vii. (1897–1907). The authoritative manual for the royal houses and the “higher nobility” of Europe is the Almanach de Gotha, published yearly. See also the articles Titles of Honour, Peerage, Feudalism, Gentleman, Duke, Count, &c.
NOBLE, SIR ANDREW (1832–), British physicist and
artillerist, was born at Greenock on the 15th of September 1832,
and was educated at Edinburgh Academy and at the Royal
Military Academy, Woolwich. In 1849 he entered the Royal
Artillery, attaining the rank of captain in 1855, and in 1857 he
became secretary to the Royal Artillery Institution. About this
time the question of the supersession of the old smooth-bores by
rifled guns was coming to the fore, and on the appointment of
the Select Committee on Rifled Cannon in 1858 to report on the
matter, he was chosen its secretary, a capacity in which he
devised an ingenious method for comparing the probable accuracy
of the shooting attainable with each type of gun. In 1859 he
was appointed Assistant-Inspector of Artillery, and in the
following year he became a member of the Ordnance Select
Committee and of the Committee on Explosives, serving on the
latter for twenty years, until its dissolution. About the same
time he was prevailed upon by Sir William, afterwards Lord,
Armstrong to leave the public service and take up a, post at
Elswick. Here, in the first instance, he was put in charge of
the ordnance department, but it was not long before his organizing
and administrative ability and scientific attainments enlarged
the sphere of his influence, until finally he became chairman of
the company. Immediately on his appointment he began a
systematic investigation of the phenomena which occur when a
gun is fired, some of his first experiments being designed to
discover with accuracy the pressures attained in the largest
guns of that time. About 1862 he invented his chronoscope for
the measurement of exceedingly small intervals of time, and
began to apply it in ballistic experiments for ascertaining the
velocity with which the shot moves along the barrel of a gun
with different powders and different charges. Then he joined
Sir Frederick Abel in a classical research on “Fired Gunpowder,”
the experimental work being largely carried on at Elswick, and
the conclusions they arrived at had a great effect on the progress
of gunnery, for they showed how increased muzzle velocities were
to be attained without increased pressures in the gun. These
inquiries, in fact, enabled Elswick in 1877 to turn out the 6-in.
and 8-in. guns, with velocities of over 2000 ft. per second, that
obliged the British government finally to give up the antiquated
muzzle-loaders to which it had so obstinately adhered. Later,
when the era of nitro or “smokeless” powders had begun,
Captain Noble was an early advocate of their advantages, and
when at length the British government awoke to the necessity
of selecting a powder of that character for the naval and military
services of Great Britain, Elswick extended its hospitality to
the committee that invented cordite, and gave the members
facilities, which were not offered by the government, for the
necessary experimental work. Even after the powder was invented
and the committee dissolved, inquiries—which it was
nobody's official business to make, and which therefore were not
made officially—were continued at Elswick to ascertain how by
suitable modifications in form, composition, &c., cordite might
the better perform the varied duties required of it. Noble
became a member of the committee appointed in 1900 by Lord
Lansdowne to consider, among other things, the excessive erosion
alleged by some of the powder's critics to be produced by it in
the barrels of the guns in which it is used. He was made C.B.
in 1881, promoted to be K.C.B. in 1893, and was created a baronet
among the Coronation honours' in 1902; he was also the recipient
of many foreign decorations and scientific honours, including a
Royal medal from the Royal Society in 1880, and the Albert
medal of the Society of Arts in 1909. He published a number of
his scientific papers in a collected form as Artillery and Explosives
in 1906.
NOBLESVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Hamilton
county, Indiana, U.S.A., on the White river, about 20 m. N. by E. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1890) 3054; (1900) 4792 (226 negroes); (1910) 5073, It is served by the Lake Erie & Western, the Central Indiana and the Indiana Union (electric) Traction railways. It is in the natural gas region of the state, and has various manufactures. It was settled about 1825 and incorporated as a town in 1851.
NOCERA INFERIORE, formerly Nocera dei Pagani (anc.
Nuceria Alfaterna, q.v.), a town and episcopal see of Campania,
Italy, in the province of Salerno, at the foot of Monte Albino,
23 m. E.S.E. of Naples by rail, 135 ft. above sea-level. Pop.
(1901) 11,933 (town); 20,064 (commune). Nocera is connected
with Codola on the line from Naples to Avellino by a branch
railway (3 m.). In the old castle Helena, the widow of Manfred,
died after the battle of Benevento, and here Urban VI. imprisoned
the cardinals who favoured the antipope Clement VII. Two
miles to the E. near the village of Nocera Superiore is the circular
church of Sta Maria Maggiore, dating from the 4th century. Its
chief feature is its dome, ceiled with stone internally, but covered
externally with a false roof. It is supported by 40 ancient
columns, and in its construction resembles S Stefano Rotondo in
Rome. The walls are covered with frescoes of the 14th century.
At an early date the city became an episcopal see, and in the 12th century it sided with Innocent II. against Roger of Sicily, and suffered severely for its choice. A colony of Saracens introduced by Frederick II. probably gave rise to the epithet (“of the pagans”) by which it was so long distinguished, as well as to the town of Pagani, which lies about 1 m. to the west. In 1385 Pope Urban VI. was besieged in the castle of Charles of Durazzo. Nocera was the birthplace of Solimena the painter and of Hugo de’ Pagani, the founder of the Templars; and in the list of its bishops appears the name of Paulus Jovius.
NOCERA UMBRA (anc. Nuceria Camellaria), a town and
episcopal see in the province of Perugia, Italy, 12 m. by rail N.
by E. of Foligno, 1706 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 5685
(town), 7848 (commune). It has some old churches, containing
pictures and frescoes; in the cathedral is a large altarpiece by
Nicolo Alunno. Three miles to the south-east of the town are mineral springs.
