NOBLE, SIR ANDREW, 1ST BART., cr. 1902 (1832-1915), British physicist and artillerist, was born at Greenock on Sept. 15, 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 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. He devised an ingenious method for comparing the probable accuracy of the shooting attainable with each type of gun. In 1859 he was appointed assist ant-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 until its dissolution 20 years later. About the same time he was prevailed upon by Sir William, after wards Lord, Armstrong to leave the public service and take up a post at Elswick. Here he became chairman of the company.
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. The conclusions they reached had a great effect on the progress of gunnery, for they showed increased pressures in the gun. Noble advocated nitro or "smoke less" powders, and the Elswick works provided facilities, which were not offered by the Government, for the necessary experi mental work of the committee on cordite. Noble was the recipient of many honours. His scientific papers were collected as Artillery and Explosives (1906). He died in Argyllshire on Oct. 22, 1915.