Aug. 20, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
295 
The Colt Revolver. 
The Colt revolver, in its early exploitation, 
had many vicissitudes of fortune. Before its 
sterling merits were appreciated by the public 
at large, commercial success for a time seemed 
hopeless. However, when adventitious circum¬ 
stances, such as war and the maintenance of 
peace in the wilderness, demonstrated its great 
utility, it quickly won its way into universal use. 
It has long had a world-wide 
fame for perfection of workman¬ 
ship, simplicity of action, accu¬ 
racy of fire, and especially for 
soundness of construction. It is 
thus esteemed alike by soldier, 
sailor and civilian, for purposes 
of offense or defense. 
Recognizing that the Colt re¬ 
volver at present, and during 
many years past, has been and is 
a standard weapon, it is difficult 
to realize that in the early years 
of its exploitation it was viewed 
by the public with suspicion, al¬ 
though from the very first it was 
efficient, for it embodied the es¬ 
sential principles of the modern 
Colt. These principles, neverthe¬ 
less, were not new. They had ap¬ 
peared before in many different 
ancient types of firearms—though 
then more or less crudely and in¬ 
adequately applied—or were scat¬ 
tered in a fragmentary way in 
many different old mechanisms. 
The trade genius’ of Colt was in 
the selection of the really useful, 
and the rejection of the useless 
principles out of the multitude in 
existence, and the merging them 
into a composite whole of greater 
perfection than had appeared in 
any antecedent firearm of like kind. 
The rigidity of mind conse¬ 
quent to long-continued beliefs 
and habits of thought is shown 
by the fact that one of the ob¬ 
jections raised against the first 
Colt revolver was that the per¬ 
cussion cap method of ignition 
was employed. The old flintlock 
system — always unreliable and 
unsatisfactory—was considered by 
the multitude as the final expres¬ 
sion of a safe and satisfactory 
method of ignition as applied to firearms. Such 
public stupidity would seem almost to justify us 
in questioning whether in that age the Amer¬ 
ican people were really as progressive as they 
thought they were. 
However, in such matters, it is always much 
easier to judge accurately of the value of an 
invention after it is an established .success than 
when in the experimental or introductory stages. 
While the flint lock was slow in action, it was 
preceded by mechanisms which were so much 
slower, more laborious and uncertain that the 
public, always slow to adopt radical changes, 
was quite satisfied as to its finality as the most 
perfect method of ignition. Many of the most 
noted sportsmen had declared in favor of the 
flint lock as against the percussion cap, thus af¬ 
fording authority in support of the public habit 
of mind and the prejudices always associated 
therewith in favor of long usages. 
Samuel Colt, the inventor of the Colt revolver, 
spent the early years of his life in Hartford. 
Conn., where he w,as born on July 19, 1814. He 
was far above the average in capacity for work 
and in the acquirement of knowledge, as shown 
by his touring the United States and Canada, at 
the age of eighteen, as a lecturer on chemistry, 
a knowledge of which he had acquired in the 
laboratory of his father’s silk mill, said to have 
been the first manufactory of its kind in New 
England. 
Prior to his lecturing tour, he made a voyage, 
before the mast, in the ship Corlo, from Boston 
to Calcutta and return, and there is a tradition 
that on this voyage he made a wooden model 
of his famous revolver. However this may be, 
there is no doubt that at that time he had in 
mind the idea of the Colt revolver, and later 
he attempted unsuccessfully to interest his 
father and others in its manufacture. His 
lectures throughout the country were quite re¬ 
munerative, enabling him to accumulate a fund 
with which to exploit his dominant idea on his 
own account. 
In 1835 and 1836, he secured patents in 
France, Great Britain and the United States—a 
wise business precaution. In the latter year, 
with the aid of friends, he organized the Patent 
Arms Company, capitalized at $300,000, with a 
factory at Paterson, N. J., a photographic re¬ 
production of which is shown herewith. At¬ 
tempts were made to secure orders from the 
United States Government, but these were met 
with the objection that'" the weapon was likely 
to get out of order, and that the percussion 
system was inferior to the flint and steel. Some 
of the criticisms of the army 
officers apparently were sound, as 
he heeded them and improved his 
revolver. The disapproval of the 
board of officers to whom the re¬ 
volver was submitted was a griev¬ 
ous disappointment to Mr. Colt, 
as it closed the main market 
which offered hopes of large 
orders and profits. Under this 
adverse stroke of fortune, un¬ 
limited faith and pluck were 
needed to continue his work. 
However, the Seminole war in 
1837 afforded opportunity for a 
practical demonstration of the re¬ 
volver’s efficiency in battle. The 
Indian method of warfare, much 
of it hand to hand, or. at short 
ranges with firearms, specially 
favored the use of the revolver. 
Moreover, much of the fighting 
was in woods and thickets, in 
which the revolver was at a dis¬ 
tinct advantage. Through the 
progressiveness of a few officers, 
an important number of soldiers 
were supplied with the Colt re¬ 
volver, which forthwith demon¬ 
strated its efficiency in conflict. 
Especially obvious was its de¬ 
structiveness and demoralizing 
effects upon the Indians, because 
of the available multiplicity of 
fire. In the actual warfare of 
that time the six revolver shots 
supplementing the one rifle shot 
established overwhelming super¬ 
iority to the United States sol¬ 
diers. Strange to relate, the very 
efficiency of the revolver, in 
quickly contributing to end the 
w’ar, brought disaster to the com¬ 
pany, since the end of war and 
the end of the market came simul¬ 
taneously. 
After the war. a large surplus of revolvers 
was disposed of. at cut rates, in Texas, then a 
rather turbulent section politically, and, to a 
certain degree, lawless socially. This large dis¬ 
tribution of revolvers was eventually the best 
possible advertisement for the company at the 
best possible juncture of time and place. It 
paved the way for the sale of large quantities 
in the war against Mexico for the independence 
of Texas, which followed in due course of time. 
Both Colt's revolver and the repeating rifle 
seem to have pushed their way rapidly in the 
South and Southwest. Gregg, whose “Com¬ 
merce of the Prairie” was published in 1844, and 
which gives an account of a number of expe¬ 
ditions in the Santa Fe trade extending from 
1831 to 1840, speaks of the use of both these 
arms in 1839, and it is easy to §ee how popular 
COLONEL SAMUEL COLT. 
