Samuel Colt

Lore & Background

Samuel Colt was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of a farmer who became a businessman. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was six. At age 11, he was indentured to a farmer in Glastonbury, where he read a scientific encyclopedia that motivated him to create an 'impossible gun' that could fire multiple times without reloading.

In 1829, at age 15, he began working in his father's textile plant and built a homemade galvanic cell for an underwater explosion demonstration. Sent to boarding school, he amused classmates with pyrotechnics until a July 4 accident ended his schooling. His father then sent him to learn the seaman's trade; on a voyage to Calcutta, Colt had the idea for a revolver inspired by capstans and windlasses, making a wooden model of a pepperbox revolver that allowed the shooter to rotate the cylinder by cocking the hammer.

After returning to the United States in 1832, Colt resumed working for his father, who financed two guns. The first pistol exploded, but the rifle performed well; his father would not finance further development. Colt then earned a living performing laughing gas demonstrations across the United States and Canada, calling himself 'the Celebrated Dr. Colt of New-York, London and Calcutta.' He later partnered with sculptor Hiram Powers for demonstrations based on The Divine Comedy. Having saved money, he hired gunsmith John Pearson to build his revolver.

Colt's early revolver (1835–1843)

In August 1835, Colt left for England and France to secure foreign patents, and was granted his first patent in the United Kingdom. Upon returning to America, he was granted a U.S. patent for a 'revolving gun' on February 25, 1836, protecting the basic principles of his revolving-breech loading, folding trigger firearm named the Colt Paterson. With a loan from his cousin Dudley Selden, he formed a corporation of venture capitalists, and the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company of Paterson, New Jersey, was chartered on March 5, 1836.

Engineering a Safer Six-Shooter

The Colt Dragoon emerged as a direct response to the field failures of its predecessor, the Walker. Soldiers in the Mexican-American War had endured a weapon that weighed a punishing four and a half pounds, making it practical only when slung from a saddle. Worse, the Walker's chambers could be overloaded with as much as sixty grains of powder, and when Pickett bullets were mistakenly seated backwards, cylinders occasionally detonated in the shooter's hand.

A further frustration was the loading lever, which would spring free during recoil and lock the action mid-combat. Colt's remedy was methodical. The Dragoon's shorter cylinder physically limited the powder charge to fifty grains, eliminating the overloading hazard.

The barrel was trimmed to seven and a half inches from the Walker's nine, shaving overall weight down to four pounds and two ounces. A latch was added in front of the loading lever to hold it firmly in place through the kick of discharge. Together, these changes produced a revolver that was lighter, safer, and far more reliable in the hands of the Mounted Rifles and Dragoon regiments who would carry it into the next decade of conflict.

Reader's Guide

Samuel Colt's significance lies in his transformation of firearm manufacturing and marketing. His business expanded rapidly after 1847, when the Texas Rangers ordered 1,000 revolvers during the American war with Mexico. During the American Civil War, his factory in Hartford supplied firearms to both the North and the South.

Later, his firearms were used widely during the settling of the western frontier. When Colt died in 1862, he was one of the wealthiest men in the United States. Colt's manufacturing methods were at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution; his use of interchangeable parts helped him become one of the first to make efficient use of the assembly line manufacturing process. He envisioned all parts of every Colt gun to be interchangeable and made by machine, to be assembled later by hand.

Moreover, his innovative use of art, celebrity endorsements, and corporate gifts to promote his wares made him a pioneer in advertising, product placement, and mass marketing. Colt never claimed to have invented the revolver; his design was a more practical adaptation of Elisha Collier's earlier revolving flintlock, incorporating a locking bolt to keep the cylinder aligned with the barrel. His great contribution was the use of interchangeable parts.