died in Hartford, January 10, 1862. Colt was educated at home and, after his mother's death, was detailed to work periodically for a neighbor as farm labor. He displayed notable curiosity and a penchant for figuring out mechanical devices. Legend has Colt's first fascination for firearms beginning at age eleven when his master gave him a cast off horse pistol. At 15, Colt was sent to Amherst Academy to study navigation. There, he displayed a "rowdy and revolutionary" personality. After an incident involving Colt's firing the school's cannon to the dismay of school officials, a friend of the family secured a position for him on the East India trade ship, Corvo Captain Spalding, to Calcutta. Legend has it that on this voyage he conceived the idea of a revolver and began whittling wooden models. He was sixteen. On return from India in the summer of 1831, Colt worked in his family's textile shop in Ware, Massachusetts, where he had access to tools, materials and other workers' expertise. He also learned the practical chemistry of bleaching and dyeing. During his tenure at home, he persuaded his father to pay mechanics for making two shop models of his pistol design. The venture was a failure, as one model burst on firing and the other never worked. But the execution of the design was important as it later proved Colt the inventor. Colt left the family business and took to the road, travelling from Quebec to New Orleans selling merchandise and lecturing on chemistry under the name of "Dr. Coult." A feature of his lectures was the administration of nitrous oxide gas to volunteers from the audience. His road show made Colt popular as well as funding his gun design venture. During his medicine show career, Colt continued to commission gunsmiths and machinists, thirteen altogether, in refining and prototyping his revolver design. In July, 1835, he was advised by Henry Ellsworth, the U.S. Chief Patent Officer, to take his design to England and secure a patent before submitting it in the U.S. Colt booked passage in August. Upon arrival, Colt obtained and studied expatriate Bostonian Elisha Collier's British patent for a flintlock revolver, quickly finalized his own documentation, and submitted for British patent in October 1835. The wooden models and the remnants of two failed models supported his submission, and British patent 6909 for "improvements to the construction of a revolving firearm" was granted on October 22, 1835. In November, Colt filed in France for an identical patent and was likewise awarded. He returned to the U.S. and obtained patent (number 138) on February 25, 1836 for a Revolving Gun. The first production model saw light on March 5, 1836 and Colt raised the capital to open the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company of Paterson, New Jersey. With that stroke, the Colt Paterson, the first manufactured percussion revolver was born. Excerpts from Samuel Colt: Arms, Art, and Invention |
| Percussion Revolvers - a short history the Colt Paterson |
| The Percussion Revolver is a completely American invention. Successful precursor revolvers were the inventions of Americans in Europe Sam Colt through genius and persistence invented the modern sidearm The next step into history was the collaboration of Sam Colt and Sam Walker. |
| The Colt Paterson Revolver |
image courtesy of
Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation
Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation