Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-16
MASTER MAKER OF BIG GUNS
SIR ANDREW NOBLE ENGLISH
AUTHORITY ON ORDNANCE.
Awarded Albert Medal of the Royal
Society-Is the Son of an
American Woman.

From Pearson's Weekly
No living man knows more about guns
and explosives than Sir Andrew Noble.
who has lately been awarded. with the
approval of the Prince of Wales, the
Albert medal of the Royal Society.
He is chairman of Armstrong. Whit
worth & Co, whose great works stand
at Elswick. on the up-river side of New
castle on-Tyne.
Elswick has a hand in almost every
department of the steel industry, but its
specialties are big guns and warships.
1t has built the greater part of the Jap
anese navy. Forty thousand pounds is
distributed there every week in wages
among 1000 men, Some hundred
thousand of the population of Newcastle
are more or less dependent on Elswick.
1t has river frontage a mile and
half long. and hundred and fifty
separate workshops 1t has even chill
dren's school.
Born at Greenock.
The ordnance department. in which Sir
Andrew Noble won his fame, covers over
forty acres, and employs $1,000 of the
men. Work goes on there day and night.
Born at Greenock Seventy-seven years
ago, the son of naval officer and of an
American mother. Sir Andrew soon be-
came a captain in the Royal Artillery,
and an enthusiastic student of everything
relating to cannons.
When the great struggle between can
non and armor plating began the gov
eminent appointed. in 1882 committee
of inquiry. with Capt. Noble as mem
Der. In the same year. so rapidly had
ha 70 70 s.
sistant inspector of artillery.
1t was in 1860 that he began his ia
nous partnership with the late Lord
Armstrong. who thirteen years before
law and founded a small factory at
Elswick
In 1860 he had just added an ordnance
department. and saw that the brilliant
young artillery officer was the man he
wanted. The two worked together for
small things to become one of the big
gest industrial establishments in the
world.
Sir Andrew Noble was largely respon-
sible for the change from iron to steel
as material for big guns Something
better was needed than the heavy bronze
and cast-iron cannon that had been do
ing duty at Sebastopol. In few years
Noble had left them miles behind and
revolutionized the science of cannon
building.
This is how big guns are built at Els
wick:
Red-hot steel ingots are forced into a
rough cylindrical shape. either by the
pounding of steam-hammers tsome of
them can give a blow of 700 tons} or
by hydraulic presses. The largest of the
latter gives a pressure of nearly 5000
tons.
Now that the rough forging has been
made it has to be tested, and this is a
process.
pieces are cut off from the main forg-
ing, heated in oil at temperature of
about 1,o0O degrees Fahrenheit, and fixed
firmly in iron jaws. Hydraulic pressure
now tries to tear each lump in two. the
strain sometimes rising to forty-six tons
on each square inch. If all the sample
pieces stand the test the forging is held
good enough to make a gun. If not. an
other forging is made.
If the test is satisfactory the rough
pillar of steel is now ''rough-bored'' in
side and turned on the outside. Then
it is hardened by being dipped into
bath of hot oil: then bored and turned
again till smooth: then annealed. or al
lowed to cool slowly from high tenn
perature: then it is "fine-bored" and
''ine-turned." The next process is that
of testing the surface. 1t is tested both
chemically and by mirrors
Grooved Like a Screw.
4 gun is now we'll into shape. but il
needs Strengthening. A deep pit is dug,
and the gun set upright in it. Red hot
hoops of steel are dropped on from on
top. As they cool they tighten. After
each layer of hoops the gun is planed by
lathe to make it smooth for the next
layer.
Now the inside is rif1ed or grooved like
a screw. When the powder chamber has
been bored out and the breech block tit
tod &c .ly- dI-f or = trials
The Elswick big guns are tested near
Silloth, on the fiat and lonely shores of
the Solway Firth.
Many are the inventions that the ar
tillery world owes to Sir Andrew Noble.
The debt might be summed up in this:
Sir Andrew was the first man to apply
scientific methods Of research to gun
making which had hitherto been largely
a rule-of-thumb affair.
One of his most ingenious inventions,
however, is the chronoScope, which mea-
sures the speed of shot at different
parts Of the bore of gun. Cutting
plugs" passing through the circumfer-
ence of the gun to the bore, are screwed
into the sides of the gun. AS the shot
pa sses. it's foremost edge presses up
knife. which cuts a wire. This lntercepts
an electric current. and the instrument
thus makes the record
Fond of Shooting.
He has, too, after exhaustive research,
published a valuable table by which the
heat and the gases produced by any
charge in any gun can be calculated and
analysed.
Sir Andrew is very fond of shooting and
of tennis When young he was a noted
athlete. His home is in the heart of Jes-
mond Dene the mos beautiful public
park in England. Honors have been show
cred on him for his services to science.
He has been decorated by seven foreign
governments.
A story is told of two Elswck children
who once saw Sir Andrew pass. You you
know who that is with the white whis-
kers?' asked one.
No
We'll. that's Noble was the awed
answer.
lis that him.
Yes. that's the man my father says
invented popguns.' And four reverential
eyes followed the great inventor.
q. p. STOCK TOUCHES 219.