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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Samuel Colt Biography COLT, Samuel (1814–62). An American manufacturer, inventor of the revolver. He was born in Hartford, Conn., where he worked in his father's factory. Obtaining a knowledge of chemistry, he lectured on that subject in the United States and Canada, and in 1835 secured patents for a revolving pistol, a wooden model of which he had made while at sea when a boy. In the same year the Patent Arms Company was formed for the manufacture of his invention, but became insolvent in 1842 through insufficient demand for its product. In 1847 Colt contracted to make 1000 weapons for General Taylor, and the improvement of the revolver, together with the increased demand for it, set the business on a stable footing, while new improvements were constantly made in the weapon. In 1852 he built a large armory in Hartford, where, besides firearms, machinery was made for their manufacture in other places, notably at the English and the Russian arsenals. He invented a battery for submarine harbor defense, and in 1843 laid and successfully tested in New York harbor the first submarine telegraph cable. His line was insulated with a combination of cotton yarn, beeswax, and asphaltum, incased in a lead pipe, gutta-percha not then having been discovered. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. V (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 629. |