THE COLT LEGEND

"Abe Lincoln may have freed all men, but Sam Colt made them equal." This post-Civil War slogan would have been music to Sam Colt's ears had he lived long enough to hear it. Yet, even before his death at the age of 47, he knew that his invention of a weapon capable of firing without reloading was a tremendous success throughout the world. Some 19th-century historians have gone so far as to say that Sam Colt's invention altered the course of history. Whatever the case, when all was said and done, no one could deny that Sam Colt had achieved both fame and fortune known to few other inventors.

As a direct result of his invention and the marketing and sales success that followed, Sam Colt and his firearms played a prominent role in the history of a developing America. So popular was the Colt revolver during the latter half of the 1800s that it was perhaps the best-known firearm not only in this country but also in Canada, Mexico, and many European countries.


ORIGINS OF THE COMPANY

Sam Colt's success story began with the issuance of a U.S. patent in 1836 for the Colt firearm equipped with a revolving cylinder containing five or six bullets. Colt's revolver provided its user with greatly increased firepower. Prior to Colt’s invention, only one- and two-barrel flintlock pistols were available. In the 173 years that have followed, more than 30 million revolvers, pistols, and rifles bearing the Colt name have been produced, almost all of them in plants located in the Hartford, Connecticut, area.

 The Colt revolving-cylinder concept is said to have occurred to Sam Colt while serving as a seaman aboard the sailing ship Corvo. There he observed a similar principle in the workings of the ship's capstan. During his leisure hours, Sam carved a wooden representation of his idea. The principle was remarkable in its simplicity and its applicability to both longarms and sidearms. Nevertheless, Colt's idea was not an instant success. At the outset, many people preferred the traditional flintlock musket or pistol to such a novel weapon.

In 1836, Colt built his first plant in Paterson, N.J., then one of this country's fastest-growing manufacturing centers. Sam Colt's uncle, a successful local businessman, was willing to help young Sam form the company. At age 22, Sam Colt was the firm's chief salesman and new business.

Colt soon developed and produced three different revolver models: the pocket, belt, and holster; and two types of long armor rifles: one cocked by a hammer, the other by a finger lever. In all cases, gunpowder and bullets were loaded into a revolving cylinder while the primer was placed into a nipple located on the outside of the cylinder, where it would be struck by the hammer when the trigger was pulled. Despite the generally favorable performance of the product in the hands of early buyers, sales were sluggish. Even though the U.S. government purchased small quantities of the Colt ring-lever rifle and the Colt 1839 carbine, quantities ordered appear never to have exceeded 100.

In 1842, the Paterson company, known as the Patent Arms Manufacturing Co., closed, auctioned much of its equipment, and entered bankruptcy proceedings. Sam Colt then turned his attention to selling the U.S. government on his ideas for waterproof ammunition, underwater mines for harbor defense, and, in association with the inventor Samuel F. B. Morse, the telegraph.

In 1845, however, units of the U.S. Dragoon forces and Texas Rangers engaged in fighting the Indians in Texas credited their use of Colt firearms for their great success in defeating Indian forces. U.S. War Department officials reportedly were favorably impressed. As a result, when the Mexican War began in 1846, Capt. Samuel H. Walker, U.S. Army, traveled East, looked up Sam Colt, and collaborated on the design of a new, more powerful revolver.

The U.S. Ordnance Dept. ordered a thousand of the newly designed revolvers, which Sam Colt called the "Walker." Suddenly, Colt was back in the firearms business but without a factory. He turned to Eli Whitney, Jr., son of the famous inventor of the cotton gin, who had a factory in Connecticut.  It was there that the order was manufactured and shipped by mid-1847.

THE 1850’s: EARLY SUCCESS

In 1851, two significant developments had a major impact on the future of the company. Sam Colt became the first American manufacturer to open a plant in England, thereby solidifying his reputation in international markets. And he began purchasing parcels of property in what was then called the South Meadows, an area of Hartford that fronted on the banks of the Connecticut River. The parcels sold at remarkably low prices because they were often flooded.  To address the flooding, Colt privately commissioned a two-mile-long dike.  The dike cost twice as much as the 250 acres, but the new plant, operational in 1855, was protected from the river's uncontrolled flow.

Colt’s factory was equipped with the most up-to-date metalworking machinery available and was capable of turning out 5,000 finished handguns during its first year of operation. Knowledgeable of the latest achievements of New England's world-famous machine tool industry, Colt lost no time in specifying interchangeable parts, some 80% of which were turned out on modern precision machinery. Sam Colt is reported to have said, "There is nothing that can't be produced by machine," and his factory's production machinery achieved a remarkably high degree of uniformity for the mid-19th century. Typically, the metal parts of a Colt revolver were designed, molded, machined, fitted, stamped with a serial number, hardened, and assembled.

An unabashed promoter of both his company and the City of Hartford, Colt raised the distinctive onion-shaped dome, topped with a cast-bronze rampant colt, over his factory.  That assured that every Hartford resident and visitor who saw the dome would ask about it and learn the Colt success story.

In 1855, Colt incorporated his business in Connecticut as the Colt's Patent Fire Arms Mfg Co., with an initial issuance of 10,000 shares of stock. Sam Colt retained ownership of 9,996 shares and gave one share to each of four business associates, including E.K. Root, his trusted factory superintendent and an inventor in his own right. By 1856, the company was producing 150 weapons a day; and the reputation of Colt firearms for exceptional accuracy, reliability, workmanship, and design had spread throughout the world.

Business success brought Colt fortune and fame.  He became one of the ten wealthiest businessmen in the U.S and was awarded the honorary title of “Colonel” by the Governor of the State of Connecticut in return for political support. Colonel Colt had long enhanced the beauty of his firearms by adding engraving and gold inlay, but as the renown of his firearms spread, he expanded his engraving department. Colt's show guns and presentation pieces, exquisitely engraved and generously inlaid with gold, consistently won prizes at international trade fairs. Many were presented publicly to heads of state, including Czars Nicholas I and Alexander II of Russia, King Frederick VII of Denmark, and King Charles XV of Sweden.

Colt's Patent Fire Arms Mfg Co. sold its product line through a small force of traveling salesmen, known as agents, and through 15 to 20 jobbers who acted as wholesalers selling large quantities to individual retail outlets. The company also maintained sales offices in New York City and London. In addition, the sales department accepted direct orders at the plant from the rich and famous, friends of the Colt family, and those ordering large quantities.

Decades ahead of his time, Sam Colt was later recognized as one of the earliest American manufacturers to realize fully the potential of an effective marketing program that included sales promotion, publicity, product sampling, advertising, and public relations. His success made him perhaps the richest man in Connecticut and a pillar of the Hartford community. When Sam Colt built his home, Armsmear, an ornate mansion replete with greenhouses and formal gardens on the western edge of his armory property, it was deemed fitting that it should be one of New England's grandest residences. Armsmear remains standing to this day and is now an Episcopal home for the elderly.

1860 TO 1900:  WAR, THE DEATH OF SAM COLT AND GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN WEST

Samuel Colt's health began to fail late in 1860 as the country moved toward Civil War. Prior to the actual declaration of war, Colt continued to ship his product to customers in southern states, but as soon as war was official, Colt supplied only the Union forces. The Armory was running at full capacity by year-end 1861, with more than 1,000 employees and annual profits exceeding $250,000. Samuel Colt died on January 10, 1862, at the age of only 47, having produced in his lifetime more than 400,000 guns. His estate was reportedly worth $15 million, a fantastic sum for the time.

Following Sam Colt's death, control of the company remained in the capable hands of Mrs. Elizabeth Colt and her family until 1901, when the company was sold to a group of investors. During that 39-year period, a number of significant events and developments impacted the Colt product line.

The Colt Armory and adjacent office structure burned to the ground in 1864, causing the suspension of all but limited military production for almost three years. The factory was rebuilt and, at Mrs. Colt's direction, was constructed to be as fireproof as possible. In 1867, the company began production of Dr. R.J. Gatling's machine gun, a semiautomatic firearm operated by a hand crank that turned a cluster of six to ten barrels while feeding ammunition into the breech.

Further change and growth came in the 1870’s.  In 1872, Colt began to manufacture its first breech-loaded revolver that used self-contained metallic cartridges. That gun became world-famous as the Single Action Army^® Model 1873 and it was designed to use metallic ammunition that contained its own primer. In the years just prior to introduction of the 1873, thousands of percussive Colt revolvers had been converted to use a front-loaded, center-fired cartridge and there was pent-up demand for a gun designed for the new cartridge.  The Single Action Army was an immediate sales success.  Eventually, it became the stuff of legend as the “Peacemaker”® and "the gun that won the West." Between 1873 and 1941, Colt produced more than 350,000 Single Action Army revolvers of varying caliber, including almost 40,000 of the .45 caliber model sold to the U.S. government.

 Product expansion continued during the 1880s, Colt introduced a full line of firearms ranging in size from concealable derringers to hammerless shotguns.

The line encompassed a large number of double action revolvers in various calibers, slide and pump action rifles, and the first revolvers with swing-out cylinders for easier loading. As its fame and reach grew, Colt Firearms had no single competitor. Smith & Wesson offered the greatest competition for the Colt line of handguns. Where rifles and shotguns were concerned, Remington and Winchester were the strongest competitors.

 No other U.S. company produced as many fully automatic rifles, best known as machine guns, as did Colt Firearms. In large part, this was due to Colt’s long and profitable relationship with John Moses Browning. As early as 1891, Colt Firearms worked with Browning to produce a gas-operated, air-cooled (later water-cooled) machine gun.  That gun was first delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1897 and was destined to play a major role in both the Boxer Rebellion and the Spanish-American War.

The Colt-Browning relationship included not only his machine guns and the well-known Browning automatic rifles (BAR) but also the world-famous Colt .45 semiautomatic pistol. Because of its effective stopping power, the Colt .45 was purchased in large quantity by the Department of the Army and, as the Model 1911A1, became the standard-issue sidearm during both World War I and World War II. Colt delivered approximately 2.5 million Colt .45 pistols to the U.S. government alone and also offered the pistol for sale commercially with tremendous marketing success. During both World Wars and subsequent military actions by the U.S. Armed Forces, Colt was a major producer of sidearms, rifles, machine guns, BARs, and antiaircraft guns for the U.S. Department of Defense.