Samuel Colt – Flamboyant Tinkerer

By Suzanne Norquist

Samuel Colt (1814-1862) was known for designing and manufacturing the first revolvers in the United States. His cost-effective process enabled regular people, such as settlers and miners, to own this state-of-the-art gun. The brand and his name are synonymous with firearms today.

He didn’t set out to transform the weapons industry. He was just a kid who liked explosions and fireworks. Science fascinated him, and he asked questions of chemists and mechanics. In addition, he was a natural showman. This combination sometimes got him into trouble, but ultimately, it allowed him to succeed.

As a pre-teen, he worked on a farm while attending school. On Sundays, he was allowed to read a science encyclopedia. Among other things, it contained articles about gunpowder and about inventors who did the impossible. Both fascinated him.

Later, as a teen, he worked at his father’s textile plant. There, he had access to tools, chemicals, and the workers’ knowledge—the perfect environment for a curious mind. One Fourth of July, he put his ideas to use and set off an underwater explosion to entertain the town.

Soon after, his father sent him to boarding school. There, he amused his friends with unsanctioned fireworks displays. One caused a fire, which ended his formal education.

His next job as a teen (in 1829) was as a deckhand on a ship to India. Perhaps his father thought the adventure would keep him out of trouble. While laboring, he watched the things around him and considered what he could invent, particularly related to firearms or explosives.

At the time, most pistols could only make one shot before reloading. People had tried different ideas to allow consecutive shots. The pepperbox pistol had multiple barrels. First-generation revolvers included cylinders that were difficult to align.

Colt modeled a cylinder based on a ship’s capstan, a rotating machine with long bars. Men would push the bars to turn the wheel to wind up rope. It could spin or be locked in position. Colt fashioned a prototype of his design from wood as he sailed.

He obtained a U.S. patent in 1836 and borrowed money to build a couple of guns but had limited success. When he needed more money, he hit the road for a couple of years as a traveling medicine man. Calling himself Dr. Coult, he peddled nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Audiences loved his flair for showmanship, and he earned the money he needed to produce his invention.

With the help of trained gunsmiths and engineers, he built a factory to manufacture the first version of the gun. They designed molds to produce interchangeable parts. His plant used an assembly line, unusual for the time. This kept costs down.

He had some success, but eventually shut down the factory and looked into other inventions, like underwater explosives. For a time, he partnered with Samuel Morse to build an underwater telegraph line.

Several years later, in 1846, the government ordered 1,000 pistols for the Mexican-American War. They had heard about the usefulness of the revolvers from the Texas Rangers who had purchased them earlier.

Colt had to hustle to get a new factory up and running. He wouldn’t miss out on that sale. In the process, he made improvements requested by Captain Walker of the U.S. Army.

Add Colt’s dramatic flair for sales to the endorsement of the U.S. government, and an iconic brand was born. He gifted revolvers to heads of state and celebrities in grand gestures. He commissioned artists to create paintings that prominently featured his product. Hired authors wrote stories for magazines that included his guns.

In 1862, he passed away from complications of gout at the age of 47, leaving the Colt empire to his widow.

Today, the Colt name is synonymous with firearms. However, Samuel Colt was more of a flamboyant tinkerer who liked to make things go BOOM.

***

 

Love In Bloom 4-in-one collection

by Mary Davis (Author), Kathleen E Kovach (Author), Suzanne Norquist (Author)

Holly & Ivy

At Christmastime, a young woman accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a mail-order bride and loses her heart to a gallant stranger.

Periwinkle in the Park

A female hiking guide, who is helping to commission a national park, runs into conflict with a mountain man determined to keep the government off his land.

A Song for Rose

Can a disillusioned tenor convince an aspiring soprano that there is more to music than fame?

Beauty in a Tansy?

Two adjacent store owners are drawn to each other, but their older relatives provide obstacles to their ever becoming close.

Republished from Bouquet of Brides

Buy links: https://books2read.com/u/bOOx8K

https://www.amazon.com/Love-Bloom-Mary-Davis/dp/B0FPLFYCXR/

 

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.

 

Which Gun Actually Won the West?

I recently had a reader contact me about one of my HHH blog posts from 2018, in which I mentioned the Colt Peacemaker as “the gun that won the West.” Said reader suggested that, in reality, it was the Winchester rifle that held those bragging rights. I was certain the Colt Peacemaker had been known as the gun that won the west, but to do my due diligence, I went digging just to be sure.

Here’s the fun information that I found.

Both the Colt 1873 Single-Action Army Revolver (better known as the “Peacemaker”) and the Winchester Model 1873 Repeating Rifle were made in…well, 1873. Both were also manufactured in Connecticut—the former in Hartford, and the latter in New Haven. However, neither was known as “the gun that won the West” until after the turn of the 20^thcentury. And then, both were. 

Confused yet? Let’s back up a bit and see how these two gun-makers, Samuel Colt, and Oliver Winchester, even began in the industry.

Samuel Colt 

Colt was born to a textile manufacturer in Hartford, CT, on July 19, 1814. He was quite an industrious and in inquisitive child, often disassembling machines to see how they worked. It was when he was just sixteen years old that he served a stint as a seaman and became fascinated with how the ship’s wheel worked. Based on the same concept, he created a wooden prototype of a rotating cylinder to feed six shots of ammunition into a handgun before reloading. He applied for and was granted the patent on his revolving-chamber pistol in 1836. In the same year, he set up his first manufacturing shop in New Jersey. However, sales were low, and it didn’t take long for the 22-year-old businessman to turn his attention to other more lucrative things. It didn’t appear the U.S. consumer was ready for such a progressive weapon.

The Colt "Walker" pistol used during the Mexican-American War

However, there was a segment of the population that did take notice of these unusual handguns. The militia members in both Texas and Florida, where Indian troubles were in full swing. It seemed these revolving-chamber pistols were favored by the front-line fighters in both the hotspots. So as the Mexican-American War ramped up, Army Captain Samuel Walker worked with Colt to design “The Walker” pistol—and the United States government ordered 1,000 handguns. Colt’s focus shifted back to gun manufacturing, and he incorporated the Colt Patent Fire Arms Company in Hartford, where he could eventually turn out 150 pistols per day.

The Colt Peacemaker

While Samuel Colt himself died in 1862, the company went on to supply many handguns for the Civil War between 1861 and 1865, and then in 1873, they manufactured the Colt “Peacemaker” that was so popular in the American West.

Oliver Winchester

Oliver Winchester was also in manufacturing, but his path into gun-making came about much differently. He was born in 1810 in Boston, MA, and years later, he got his feet wet in industry when he patented an improved men’s neckband to “remedy the evil of a too-tight collar.” He opened shop in New Haven, CT, in 1848. Now, it’s said that he wasn’t one who liked or owned guns, so how did such a man end up being most well-known for the repeating rifle bearing his name? He invested in the failing Volcanic Repeating Firearms Company in 1855. Over time, Winchester eventually became the chief shareholder, and the company was ultimately renamed the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1866. His manufacturing company could turn out 200 guns a day, which at the time, was mind-boggling to those living around the Winchester Repeating Arms property. They postulated that, at most, Winchester would operate his company three or four days a year, and the remainder of the time, be closed—because who in heaven’s name would need that many rifles? Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, and we know that firearms were in high demand across America—and particularly, the West—starting at about that point and going for decades to come, but at the time, Winchester’s neighbors didn’t have such insight.

The Winchester Model 1873 Repeating Rifle

So Which Gun Actually Won The West?

Back in 1873, neither Colt nor Winchester had any idea of how well their respective products would sell over time. As stated above, the phrase “the gun that won the West” didn’t come into use until after the turn of the twentieth century. It appears that Winchester was the first to lay claim to the tagline in a full-page ad from 1919. It was a wonderful marketing campaign, though wholly unprovable in any measurable way. 

As the “moving picture” industry came along, and with it, the western, the Colt Peacemaker’s popularity and glory grew afresh. Cowboys carried Peacemakers in the movies, and so the “gun that won the West” moniker attached itself to the handgun as well—broadly helped by Colt’s own marketing campaigns touting the line. But again, there was no real way to prove such a claim.

In all reality, both guns were widely popular in the Old West, and since there’s no way to measure which of the guns did more to tame or settle the wild and wooly western territories, it’s a toss-up. Or, perhaps it’s not—both guns can lay claim: the Colt Peacemaker as the handgun that won the West, and the Winchester repeater as the rifle that won the West.

It’s Your Turn: Leave me a comment about what you found most interesting in this interesting tidbit from history, making sure to include your email address, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a signed copy of Courting Calamity.

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

Courting Calamity—Available Now

Heroes Needed for Four Damsels in Distress

Despite the determination to be strong and independent, four women of bygone days are in need of a hero. On the journey to California, the deed to Mattie’s hopes and dreams is stolen. Elizabeth has been saddled with too many responsibilities at the family mercantile. Unexpectedly married, Sofia is ill-prepared for a husband and the society she is thrust into. When her sister is accosted, Aileen will do almost anything to support her. Accepting help isn’t easy when these women don’t want to show weakness, but it is more appealing when it comes with a handsome face.

Samuel Colt, Inventor and Industrialist

Michele Morris here, and today I’d like to share a little about the American inventor, Samuel Colt. 

For hundreds of years, firearms were only capable of delivering a single round. After the bullet was expelled, the shooter would have to take the time to reload before he could fire again. The delay of reloading might not be bad during target practice, but imagine if you were facing a charging bear or an enemy during a battle. The time it took to reload your gun could be the difference between life and death. For you or your family.   

Samuel Colt

Since his childhood, Samuel Colt (b. 1814 - d. 1862) had an interest in mechanics. He would often disassemble items to see how they worked, including his father’s firearms. At the age of sixteen, Samuel Colt took a trip on the ship Corvo. He studied how the wheel of the ship operated. The burgeoning inventor analyzed how the wheel's spokes were aligned with a clutch that could lock them into place at any time. 

And, voilà, the Colt revolver was born. Or at least, the concept of a multi-firing mechanism. It was from that early idea that Samuel carved out a wooden prototype which would eventually lead to the development of a rotation-type, six-barrel cylinder pistol. 

Colt Experimental Models

In 1836, Samuel Colt received a U.S. patent for his invention and received high praise from President Andrew Jackson for his ingenuity and forward thinking. 

Samuel Colt’s first commercial revolver was called the Colt Paterson. Although it was relatively easy to use, it had one major flaw . . . Users had to partially disassemble the gun to reload. Colt continued to improve his design while he founded a company to manufacture his revolving-cylinder pistol. But sales were dismal, and Samuel's business soon went bankrupt.

Colt Walker Civilian

The inception of the Mexican/American war renewed interest in Colt’s six-shooter. Together, Samuel Colt and Army Captain Samuel H. Walker designed The Colt Walker, a much more efficient revolver to load and fire. This newly designed gun prompted the government to order 1,000 units. Colt was back in business. 

Colt Peacemaker

Colt firearms became the most used gun during the American Civil War, and then in 1873, the company introduced the .45-caliber Colt Peacemaker. This gun quickly became the weapon of choice in the Wild West. 

Samuel Colt died January 10, 1862, at the age of 47. His estate was reportedly worth fifteen million dollars. Samuel’s family sold the company to investors in 1901, and Colt's Manufacturing Company is still in business today.

The imagination and resilience of Samuel Colt embraces what America has been since its history began. Hard work, forward thinking, and a never-give-up attitude is the hallmark of American historical figures.

Is there anyone from American history that you admire for their industrialism? Would you share in the comments who that might be?

Thank you for joining me today at Heroes, Heroines, and History! 

Michele Morris’s love for historical fiction began when she first read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House book series. She grew up riding horses and spending her free time in the woods of mid-Michigan dreaming of days-gone-by and knights-in-shining-armor. Therefore, it only makes sense that she now writes historical romance with a touch of suspense. Married to her high school sweetheart, they are living happily-ever-after with their six children, three in-loves, and six grandchildren in Florida, the sunshine state. When not spending time with her large brood or writing, Michele enjoys photography, genealogy, and cooking.