Perhaps he never knew about them, for the calculations of his great enterprise absorbed him entirely.
When he made his famous communication to the Gun Club, the anger of Captain Nicholl reached its maximum.

Mixed with it was supreme jealousy and a sentiment of absolute powerlessness.

How could he invent anything better than a Columbiad 900 feet long?
What armour-plate could ever resist a projectile of 30,000 lbs.?
Nicholl was at first crushed by this cannon-ball, then he recovered and resolved to crush the proposition by the weight of his best arguments.
He therefore violently attacked the labours of the Gun Club.

He sent a number of letters to the newspapers, which they did not refuse to publish.

He tried to demolish Barbicane's work scientifically.