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Samuel Colt
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Image:SamuelColt.jpeg thumb|Samuel Colt (19th century engraving)
'''Samuel Colt''' (
July 19,
1814 –
January 10,
1862), born in
Hartford, Connecticut, was the inventor of the
Colt revolver, and founder of the
Colt Firearms company.
Colt's father owned a
Mill (factory) textile mill, where the young Colt learned the principles of machinery. His work in the mill led to being a shipping hand, which then led to the aspiration to go to sea. At the age of 15, Colt left Connecticut and signed on as a sailor bound for India. Common legend holds that it was while observing the operation of the ship's
capstan (nautical) capstan that Colt conceived the idea of revolving pistol.
Colt received a European
patent for his
revolver in 1835, and an
United States American patent in 1836, which produced the first production model of Colt's revolver on March 5 of the same year at
Paterson, NJ. Due to slow acceptance of the revolutionary design, the Patent Arms company went into
bankruptcy in 1842, and during the ensuing litigation that lasted through 1846 Samuel Colt produced no further pistols.
With his patent rights re-secured, Colt began making firearms again in 1847 at the factory of
Eli Whitney, and established his factory in Connecticut in 1848, where the Colt Firearms company remains to this day. Colt's new factory was based upon the American system of manufacturing he observed at Whitney's plant, but Colt advanced this system to create what would be recognized as the first
industrialized firearm factory in the world. In 1849, Colt hired
Elisha K. Root, who had made the Collins Company the foremost
axe manufacturer in the world, to bring his machinery to state of the art, making the Colt revolver the first firearm with truly
interchangeable parts. Root invented the Lincoln Miller milling machine that was to become the most important American heavy machine tool of the late 1800s, with 150,000 being sold. Another Colt employee,
William Mason, patented over 125 inventions that modernized the production of firearms, as well as steam pumps and power looms.
Besides firearms, other roles Colt played in the development of technology included the first remotely detonated explosive, the first
underwater telegraph cable, and the popularization of using
nitrous oxide as
anesthesia.
A popular saying regarding Colt and his firearms during the
Nineteenth century was ''"God made all Men, Samuel Colt made them equal."''
During the
American Civil War he was a briefly a Colonel of a
Connecticut Regiment in 1861. [http://www.suvcwdb.org/home/records.php?action=view&id=3870 for reference only]
External links
''General''
-
Samuel Colt Biography
-
Find-A-Grave profile for Samuel Colt
''Patent''
{{Persondata
|NAME=Colt, Samuel
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=inventor of the
Colt revolver; founder of Colt Firearms
|DATE OF BIRTH=
July 19,
1814
|PLACE OF BIRTH=
Hartford, Connecticut
|DATE OF DEATH=
January 10,
1862
|PLACE OF DEATH=
}}
Category:1810 births Colt, Samuel
Category:1869 deaths Colt, Samuel
Category:American inventors Colt, Samuel
Category:Firearm designers Colt, Samuel
bs:Samuel Colt
de:Samuel Colt
es:Samuel Colt
fr:Samuel Colt
he:סמו×?ל קולט
mr:सॅम�य�अल कॉल�ट
no:Samuel Colt
pl:Samuel Colt
fi:Samuel Colt
sv:Samuel Colt
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