Samuel Colt
19th-century American industrialist and inventor (1814-1862) · United States · Scientists · Died at 47
Samuel Colt is read about 510 times a day, in 69 languages.
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Something wrong?He didn't invent the revolver, but he made it repeatable - same gun, same parts, thousands deep. That industrial leap, plus a gift for spectacle and endorsement deals before anyone called them that, turned a Connecticut mechanic into one of the richest men in America by the time he died at 47.
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Baptismal Font at Church of the Good Shepherd, Hartford, CT (close up on children)
Baptismal Font at Church of the Good Shepherd, Hartford, CT
Charles Loring Elliott - Colonel Samuel Colt
Christian Schussele - Men of Progress - Google Art Project.jpg?width=1200)
Colonel Colt LCCN2004669227 (cropped)
Colonel Colt LCCN2004669227
Colt ArmoryAwards
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Samuel Colt's first tries - a firearms shop in Paterson, New Jersey, and a side hustle in underwater mines - went nowhere. Then 1847: the Texas Rangers ordered 1,000 revolvers for the war with Mexico, and the factory in Hartford roared to life. By the Civil War his guns were shipping to both sides; after, they rode west with the frontier. He died in January 1862, wildly wealthy, having pioneered interchangeable parts and assembly-line production when the Industrial Revolution was still finding its legs. Along the way he sold the things like no one had before: art commissions, celebrity endorsements, corporate swag. The revolver became viable because Colt made it industrial, and famous because he knew how to move product.
Scientists from the United States 6
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