July 19, 1814 ~ Samuel Colt and the Revolver

When you think of the American west, you think of cowboys, outlaws, and gun flights.

The man that made all that possible, American inventor Samuel Colt was born on July 19, 1814.

Colt’s mass production of revolvers put the wild in the wild west.

In 1836, Connecticut-born Samuel Colt received a U.S. patent for a revolver mechanism that enabled a gun to be fired multiple times without reloading.

One of his first clients was the of the Republic of Texas which purchased his weapons for their navy and later for the Texas Rangers.

From there, the popularity of the revolver took off.

Colt opened the world’s largest private armament factory and employed advanced manufacturing techniques such as interchangeable parts and an organized production line.

Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company produced the pistols most widely used during the American Civil War, and its six-shot single-action .45-calibre Peacemaker model, introduced in 1873, became the most-famous sidearm of the American West.

The company he founded remains in business today.