Samuel_Colt

Richard Stacy Profile 11/5/2011 Samuel Colt Samuel Colt (July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862) was an American inventor and industrialist. He was the founder of Colt Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now known as Colt Manufacturing Company) and is widely credited with popularizing the revolver. Colt’s innovative contributions to the weapons industry have been described by arms historian James E. Serven as “events which shaped the destiny of American Firearms.” https://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Colt Colt was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of a textile manufacturer, at age fourteen Colt went to work at his Father’s textile mill. Endowed with curiosity he would disassemble the machinery, and firearms to see how they functioned. Two years later he enrolled at Amherst Academy to study navigation; however, his unruly behavior got him expelled. In 1830, at age sixteen, his Father made arrangements for him to sign on as a ship’s hand on a voyage to India. While aboard the ship, Colt became fascinated by the ship’s wheel how the spindles lined up with the shaft and the wheel locked in place with a clutch. This spawned the idea for the revolving cylinder firearm. During his voyage Colt carved from a piece of wood a replica of the pepper box revolver that consisted of a revolving mechanism with six barrels. When Colt returned to the United States in 1832 his Father agreed to finance the production of two guns, a rifle and a pistol. He then hired inexpensive tradesmen which led to failure of the firearms. Later, after learning about nitrous oxide (laughing gas) from a chemist at the textile mill, Colt travelled across North America and Canada using the title Dr. Coult, educating and entertaining crowds on the uses of nitrous oxide. He used the profits from the sales to perfect the mechanisms of the revolver and hired gunsmiths to build a prototype. He then received a European patent in 1835 and a U.S. patent in 1836 for his revolving cylinder pistol. That same year he acquired a loan from his cousin to build a plant in Patterson, New Jersey and began production of the Patterson pistol. The U.S. secretary of war denied Colt Firearms a government contract, judging that the revolver was too innovative and potentially unreliable. Sales of the new revolver to the public via general stores and catalogues, alone, did not generate enough revenue to further production of the Patterson pistol. In 1842 the company was forced to close and the inventory auctioned off to the highest bidder. Colt moved on with other inventions. One being an underwater mine designed to blowup enemy naval ships yet again he was unable to convince the government to sign contracts. After meeting with Samuel Morse (inventor of the Morse code), together, they invented the underwater telegraph cable. This proved to be successful, allowing them to run telegraph cable under lakes, rivers, and bays. In 1847 during the Mexican American War, Colt was visited by Captain Samuel H. Walker of the Texas Rangers. Walker being familiar with the Patterson pistol and its inadequacies for battle, met with Colt to discuss redesigning the pistol, making it lighter and easier to load. After presenting the new and improved revolver (named the Walker) to General Zachery Taylor, the army ordered one thousand pistols. This would be the turning point that re-launched the Colt Patent Firearm-Manufacturing Company. Colt would then go on to build a new factory in his home town of Hartford, Connecticut. Through the implementation of interchangeable parts and an assembly line, Colt Firearms produced one hundred fifty weapons per day. On January 10, 1862 the forty seven year old gun maker died at his home in Hartford, Connecticut, leaving his estate valued at millions of dollars to his wife Elizabeth Colt. In 1873 eleven years after his death Colt Firearms produced the .45 caliber Peacemaker revolver that bore the slogan “God made all men, and Colt made them equal.” The Peacemaker was the hand gun that became symbolic with the Colt name. In 1901 the Colt family sold the company to a group of investors and the name was change to Colt Manufacturing Company which it still bears today. Works cited Bio true story, http://www.biography.com/people/samuel-colt-9254072 Colt, http://www.colt.com/coltlawenforcement/history.aspx History.com, http://www.history.com/topics/samuelcolt Spartacus Educational, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWcoltS.htm Wikipedia, http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/samuel-colt Who Made America' http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/colt