Show he invented the gun that helped tame the frontier by ELMO SCOTT WATSON A NU hundred years ago this morth month on february 25 ilig to lie be exact there was issued in washington D C a patent for an invention which probably attracted little attention at the time but which was destined to be a maker of american A history during the next three quarters of 0 a century it would not only become a common name analogous in usage ll 11 to pullman for a sleeping car and ford abr an automobile 4 but it would also be an important factor in taming the rl I 1 american frontier and revolutionize military tactics 11 F that last Is a quotation from the recent biography of t 1 4 the manto man to whom the patent was issued yankee arms maker the incredible career of samuel colt written by jack rohan and published by harper and brothers for the invention which was patented just a century ago was the revolver the first successful firearm of its kind in history connected with samuels colts revolver are two interesting paradoxes one of them Is that tills this weapon which would become so much a ambol of the wild west was produced by a native of one of the oldest ettlel parts of the east the other Is that it an instrument in the co conquest n AR of a wild land had its real genesis at sea samuel colt was born in hai hartford aford conn july 19 1814 the third son of christopher and sarah caldwell colt ills mother was a daughter of maj john caldwell a veteran of the revolution devolution the tact fact that she was the daughter of a soldier and therefore had colt firearms probably had much to do with her sons early interest in guns at tile the age of eleven sam anin colt was indentured to a farmer near glastonbury Glaston bury and during ills service there two factors had bad a decided influence in shaping his future career the only hooks books in tills this farm home were the bible the almanac and a volume known as the compendium of knowledge young colt spent I 1 anost most of his spare pare time reading the latter in it he found considerable scientific information an extended account of the work of robert fulton inventor of the steamboat nn an article describing the galvanic battery and a formula for making gunpowder even more important however was tile time he be spent during du ring ills his errands to the villa village e store where according to ills his biographer cracker bar rel philosophers weighed the bestany tle stiny of the republic the outstanding doings of tile the revolution were still being discussed from men who had bad the story from their fathers when it was fresh new from the recollections of old men who had been on the ground sam heard the legend of the shooting of general fraser at saratoga by tim murphy and of other marvelous deeds murphy had performed with his double rifle wide eyed with intelligent ent interest the lad ad often listened to speculation as to the casualties that might have been inflicted tad bad the whole bole continental army been armed with like ive weapons apons if some nation could invent ta a gun that would shoot five or six times without reloading that nation would rule the world in the opinion of the glastonbury Glaston bury military observers ers but of course the thing was impossible sam listening mouse like as he be waited for the storekeeper io to put up his order missed nothing of what was said analyzing the discussions at his leisure he discovered that robert fulton and several other lin inventors had bad accomplished things deemed im impossible until they were done lie ile concluded that the local forums opinion on repeating firearms might not after all be infallible lie deeded decided lie he would be an inventor and create the impossible gun thus was the germ of the idea planted la in the yankee boys mind it developed a little farther a year later when he went to work in his fathers textile plant at ware mass there he had access to various chemicals and the opportunity to borrow tools of all kinds from the millwrights expanding upon the idea of tim murphys Murp hys double ible rifle he be bound four barrels together and tried to make them revolve so that each in turn would come under the lock and fire but more 1 often ulan than not all tour four tired fired at once so he be had ito to give it up as a bad job next he was apprenticed to a captain of the brig corlo which was sailing from boston on a voyage to calcutta india young sam especially thrilled over life as a sailor bailor but he be did enjoy watching some of the old salts carve odd little knick knacks out of aiwood while he had been employed lu in the tex itile factory at ware he had made the acquaint i ance of a young mechanic named ellsha elisha K root who had bad explained to him the value of making working drawings and then wooden models of some of the than things s he was trying to invent watching the sailors carve sam remembered roots advice about models and set about learn I 1 ing to carve lie ile acquired considerable fi clency but when the voyage was halt half over he was without any idea on which to construct a model says rohan roblin but one day in the indian ocean a real inspiration came to him standing idly watching tho the steersman he be alced ced that regardless of which way the wheel was spun each spoke always came directly in allne with a clutch that could be set to hold it ile be watched tor for a long time and and finally caught i himself visioning holes in the rim holes which f successively came in alignment with a stationary aperture which the young ln inventors endors imagination identified as the bore of a pistol the revolver was conceived 1 sam had found use tor for his leisure with the jackknife that cost less than a dollar he started to whittle out the foundation of a fortune which was to run into millions I 1 by the time the voyage was over he be had a working model of his revolver complete in every detail and satisfactory in performance upon his bis return home he showed his invention to hla his father who caught his sons enthusiasm promised to finance the making of two revolvers and t to pay for obtaining tile the patents it if they worked as successfully as sam said they would however the gunsmiths gun smiths whom christopher colt engaged to make the revolvers looked upon the idea as aa boyish nonsense and thoroughly unworkable also they wanted to charge so much t tor for their work that the elder colts enthusiasm cooled and he decided not to waste much money on the guns so be engaged an ordinary mechanic chadic to do the work ue lie turned out a erode crude piece of workmanship which was far from being a faithful reproduction of young sams idea the she result was that one of the revolvers fire at all and the other burst at the first shot undiscouraged by this experience young sam 14 told his father that he would never rest until he had secured a competent gunsmith who could do the precise fitting and delicate adjusting necessary to a revolver and had given bis if invention a fair trial so he went back bach to work in his fathers textile mill hoping to save enough money from ills his earnings to employ a man who could make nice a revolver as it should be made but it was several years yeara before lie he washable wa sable to get enough ahead to hire john Pc arson a skilled 41 yep k av W 41 W 4 rv W I 1 the or i X ol 01 old 1 navy pistol with carbine attachment malker pistol V A contier aix shooter mechanic to set up a la in baltimore and begin making samples amples of his revolvers ue he also interested his father in the project again and the result was a trip to europe where he be secured patents on his weapon in england prussia and france returning to america he be borrowed SOO troi aroi his father and went to washington where on february rebr uary 25 1830 his historic patent was granted then he be set about organizing a corporation to manufacture and market his weapon and on march 5 the new jersey legislature chartered the patent arms bianu fac fracturing turing company of paterson but despite tills this triumphal culmination of tho the young yankees efforts to create the impossible gun his future path to success was a rocky one there were quarrels with his relatives over the maua management gement of the company in which they had invested their money there were all sorts of financial troubles struggles with competitors lawsuits over patent infringements and other difficulties for this pioneer industrial enterprise to the student of the history of american business and industry this new biography of samuel colt Is interesting because it shows that he was the first of the great american industrialists colt not the modern motor car manufacturer conceived and first utilized standardized machine production division of labor and the assembly line he be was one of the first it if not the first large scale employer to assume responsibility for the well being of hla his employees colt showed the way to the modern promoters of wars he was ahe he precursor of the modern munitions kings a pioneer in the art of playing one nation against another to increase his sales equally interesting Is the part which his weapon played in the military history of this country and more particularly in the history of the frontier unable to convince moss backed brass hats in the war department that his revolver and his revolving rifle were superior to the smoothbore smooth bore musket and single shot horse pistol to which they were devoted he next tried to get the navy department to adopt them but again he was unsuccessful then the panic year of almost wiped out his business but an indian war saved him the war with the Semi seminoles noles in florida gen thomas S jesup quartermaster general of the array army was in charge of operations against the Semi seminoles noles and his bis second in command was col william S harney a fine field officer who regarded colts invention with great favor harney realized that the revolvers were jus the arms needed in the peculiar type of war waged by the indians the tactics of the Semi seminoles noles were simple they would lie in ambush tor for the federal soldiers and make a feint attack drawing the fire anre from the single shot muskets then while the soldiers were reloading they would swarm over them with the main indian force and annihilate them troops armed with guns shooting six times would be a sad surprise sur prise to tile the indians indian and colonel harney was soldier enough to know it As a result colt was able to sell a considerable number of his guns to jesup and harney and their success in the seminole war proved con ine Caval charbe BY FREDERIC REMINGTON all pictures shown above from bohans yankee arms maker the incredible career of samuel colt courtesy harper and brothers publishers elusively to the war department their value as weapons for our soldiers another significant event at about this time was COWS colts meeting with capt sam 11 walker a famous texas ranger leader who had come to washington with a delegation of frontiersmen to urge the admission of the new republic of texas as a state in the federal union up to this time colt had bad been making a 34 caliber revolver but out of his conference in new york with walker came the 44 caliber walker colt which soon became a favorite weapon on the southwest frontier A few years later this gun became even more significant la irk that part of the country by the time texas was admitted to the union in war between mexico and the united states was inevitable president polk sent seat a force under gen zachary taylor to the rio grande to protect the new state against its former rulers the Mex mexicans icalas when a detachment of american cavalry was ambushed by a mexican patrol its commander a captain thornton was the only man who escaped and he had shot his way to freedom with a brace of colt revolvers general taylor was impressed by this fact and asked for more information about these weapons capt sam walker of the rangers who was guarding taylors lines of communications told the general that the only thing wrong with the revolvers was that there were not enough of them thereupon taylor sent walker to washington to make known this need to the president and the result was an order on colt for 1000 of his revolvers which he at once supplied more than that he put over as clever a publicity campaign as any modern press agent ever thought of doing it was not the sales of his revolvers to the army that made sam colt says rohan it was the manner in which he capitalized the victories of the americans over numerically supe brior forces the revolvers in use at resaca de la raima palma monterey and buena vista were few and far between but those few when sam colt got to spreading the story around the world accounted for the defeat ot of the mexicans and the latter glad of any excuse for their humiliation cheerfully corroborated ills his claim it if the mexican war pave gave sam colt his first real start stark the war between the states sent his enterprise booming toward the pinnacle of success tile the extent of that conflict soon called for production of the new weapon on a bigger scale than ever before in 1861 the colt factories turned out nearly revolvers the next year production jumped to more than but the inventor did not live to see the amazing success of the thing which lie he had whittled out of wood on the brig corso ile he died january 10 but others carried on his work when the war ended and americans set about to conquer the last frontier colts invention became increasingly important in that conquest it hung nt at the hip of virtually every horseman of the plains whether texas ranger trooper in the united states army cowboy frontier marshal or outlaw it barked in cavalry charges against the wild tribesmen of the comanche the sioux and the cheyenne its roar was heard in many a frontier dance hall ball and saloon in the cow towns on the texas cattle trails it became not only a synonym for a certain type of firearm and a common name but it also became a symbol of the reign of 0 law to in a lawless laud land judge colt was judge jury and executioner and a mans life depended upon the quickness of the draw that era ended just SO 30 years after sam colt died one event was significant of its close into the little town of kan one day in 1802 rode the daltons dalfons Dal tons when one of the hottest street battles ever fought in the west was over the daltons dalfons Dal tons last of the old time bandit gangs had been wiped out the wild west was no more incidentally among the weapons found in the streets of Coffe coffeyville that day was the colt frontier six shooter which Is pictured above and which hangs on the wall ot of th the room in which this article Is being written 0 western newspaper union |