Not Until It Had Been Used in Two Wars
Was Inventor Able to Demonstrate
Its Effectiveness.
Samuel Colt, whose revolver was the pioneer of all practical rapid-fire
arms, was ten years old when he was taken out of school and put to work in
his father's silk and woolen mill in Hartford, Connecticut. At fourteen he
was doing a man's work in the dyeing department of the establishment, but
he wasn't getting a man's pay, for his father did not think it worth while
to pay money to a member of the family. So in 1828, when he was fourteen,
Samuel Colt ran away to sea, shipping on an India merchantman.
It was on this voyage that young Colt conceived the idea and made a rough
wooden model of the first revolver. He fashioned it with a jack-knife, and
figured the mechanical details out on a piece of paper. On his return from
sea the following year he made a rough iron model of it, but it did not
work satisfactorily. His mechanical knowledge was not sufficient to enable
him to remedy the defects, and he had to go back to work for his father.
The question of pay came up again, and it was settled as before by young
Colt leaving and striking out on his own account. This time it was as a
lecturer on chemistry, for in the dyeing department he had gained a fair
idea of the subject.
Investors Were Timorous.
His lectures brought him money enough to enable him to continue his work,
and in 1835 he patented his first revolver. It was a heavy, cumbersome
affair, but the device whereby the various chambers were brought in line
with a single barrel put it far ahead of all previous revolvers and
double, triple, and quadruple barreled pistols.
The easiest part of Colt's work was the invention of the weapon. The hard
part came when he organized a company and started in to manufacture
fire-arms. Investors didn't care for the idea, and in 1842 the Colt
Manufacturing Company suspended for lack of funds.
"I'll give you one thousand dollars for the entire rights to the thing,"
said a Hartford business man to Colt.
Colt took a couple of days to think it over. He did not have any money or
any prospect of money, and a thousand dollars was a big temptation.
However, he decided not to take it.
"It wouldn't pay me for the work I put into it," he said. "I'm going to
try again."
The new attempt met with more success, for toward the end of the Seminole
War in Florida the United States soldiers had begun to appreciate the
effectiveness of the Colt revolver. Then the adventurers in Texas and
through the Middle West came to look upon the six-shooter as the most
valuable part of their outfit, and there was a sufficiently large band of
these adventurers to cause a fair-sized demand. This enabled the Colt
Company to struggle on until the Mexican War became certain.
Then General Taylor, who had used the Colt revolver in his Indian
campaigns, recommended that the United States troops be furnished with it.
The little factory in Hartford suddenly found itself confronted with an
order for twenty thousand revolvers. It was necessary to work day and
night to meet the demand, and while this was going on Colt enlarged his
place of business in anticipation of future orders of like magnitude. They
came plentifully enough during the two years of the Mexican War, for the
Colt was the only small arm that played any part in that contest.
After the war, business did not fall off materially, for the great Western
migration was on, and every one who made it went armed. The pioneer and
the traveler depended upon the Colt in an emergency, and the workmanship
was so good that the revolver itself never failed. It played a great part
again in the Civil War, for most of the Northern troops, in addition to
their Springfield rifles, carried Colt revolvers. Thus the idea that a
runaway boy evolved during his trip to India helped to win the Mexican
War, to settle the West, and to decide the Civil War.