Colt, Samuel, 1814–62, American inventor, b. Hartford, Conn. In 1835–36, he patented a revolving-breech pistol and founded at Paterson, N.J., the Patent Arms Company, which failed in 1842. An order for 1,000 revolvers from the U.S. government in 1847 in the Mexican War made possible the reestablishment of his business. He later built the Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company factory at Hartford. Colt also invented a submarine battery used in harbor defense and a submarine telegraph cable. His revolving-breech pistol became so popular that the word Colt was sometimes used as a generic term for the revolver.

Bibliography

See biography by W. B. Edwards (1953).

Colt, Samuel

(born July 19, 1814, Hartford, Conn., U.S.—died Jan. 10, 1862, Hartford) U.S. inventor. He worked in his father's textile factory before going to sea in 1830. On a voyage to India he conceived the idea for his first revolver, which he later patented (1835–36). Colt's six-shooters were slow to gain acceptance, and his company in Paterson, N.J., failed in 1842. He invented a naval mine with the first remotely controlled explosive in 1843 and conducted a telegraph business that used the first underwater cable. Soldiers' favourable reports prompted an order for 1,000 pistols during the Mexican War, and Colt resumed manufacture in 1847. Assisted by Eli Whitney, Jr., he advanced the development of interchangeable parts and the assembly line. His firm, based in Hartford, produced the revolvers most widely used in the American Civil War and in the settlement of the West, including the famous Colt .45.

Colt, Samuel (1814–62) inventor, manufacturer; born in Hartford, Conn. An indifferent student, he worked in his father's dye and bleaching establishment (1824–27, 1831–32) and was sent away to sea (1830–31). While at sea, he made a wooden model of an automatically revolving breech pistol and on returning to the U.S.A. he made metal models. To support his work he went on a tour as "Dr. Coult," lecturing on the marvels of chemistry. By 1836 he had patents on his pistol in England, France, and the U.S.A. and began to manufacture them in Paterson, N.J. His factory was one of the most innovative in its use of mass-production technique, and the Colt "six shooter" caught on with individuals—especially in the American West—but not with the U.S. Army. The company failed in 1842. Colt turned his attention to developing underwater mines and telegraph cable. When the Mexican War began (1846), the army placed an order for 1,000 revolvers; he had to subcontract the work to Eli Whitney's factory (in Whitneyville, Conn.) but by 1848 he was making the revolver in his own grand factory in Hartford, Conn. He directed Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company until his death.