The Wild West is known for its cowboys and gunslingers. In the Wild West the pistol
was an important piece of equipment. Samuel Colt played an important part in the Wild West
because of the invention of the Colt Revolver.
Samuel Colt was born on July 19, 1814 in Hartford, Connecticut. He was one of
eight children. As a young boy Samuel Colt’s principle interest was guns and machinery. His
father, Christopher Colt, was a textile manufacturer and was married to Sarah Coldwell Colt
(“Samuel Colt”). Samuel Colt’s parents lived there in Hartford until their death.
Sam Colt at the age of 16 attended the Amherst Academy in Massachusetts and was
eventually expelled from it for his behavior. After he was expelled from the Amherst Academy
Colt’s father sent him to sail on a ship. The ship was called the Corvo (“Samuel Colt”).
While Sam Colt was on the Corvo he came up with the idea of a revolving cylinder for a
pistol. He got it from watching the wheel and that the spokes came back in line with the wheel.
When Colt got back to land he went to a man named Mr. Anson Chase who was a gunsmith
(Haven 14). After they came up with the idea they made their first revolver. It was a four barrel
cluster revolver. The only problem was that the revolver blew up when they shot it. The reason
why it blew up was there were no partitions between the nipples to prevent one discharge from
making all the rest explode. That was Sam Colt’s first gun design he made (Peterson 209).
Samuel Colt’s first invention that worked was an underwater mine. He made a galvanic
battery that made it detonate underwater. Sam Colt got a bunch of business men and made a
demonstration for them. He stuck a raft out in a stream over the mine he stuc...
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Colt’s most famous pistol that he made was the .45-calibre peacemaker introduced
in1873. Colt made a lot of pistols in his lifetime. Colt will always be remembered for his
revolvers and how he changed the wild west and the way we fight to this day.
Works Cited
Haven, Charles T. and Frank A. Belben. A History of the Colt Revolver. New York: Bonanza
Books, 1978. Print.
Peterson, Harold L. The Treasury of the Gun. New York: Golden Press, 1962. Print.
“Samuel Colt”. The Biography Channel Website. (2013). Web. 8 Nov. 2013.
Schreiner, Philip. “Former Texas Ranger Samuel Walker Collaborated with Samuel Colt on a
Powerful New Revolver.” Wild West 13.2 (2000): 10. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 8 Nov.
2013.
Silva, Lee A. “Sam Colt’s Big Business Was a Boon to Other Gunmakers.” Wild West 25.5
(2013): 68. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
A plethora of companies began introducing water guns to the toy market before the 1980s. No name companies began creating water pistols in the shapes of sea-creatures and cartoon characters, while others introduced more intricate designs from movies like Star Trek and Rambo. One company, Entertech, even went so far as to produce battery-powered water weapons but the designs proved to be a little too life-like. The water guns began resembling real live machine guns like those used by G.I.'s and some even came equipped with a back pack and grenade devices. The water weaponry market continued evolving, and soon enough, perhaps the most important contributor, Lonnie Johnson, came into the picture. A nuclear engineer, who, in 1982, thought of creating a water gun, that could shoot up to great distances without the technicalities and expenses of battery power, Lonnie Johnson gave birth to the industry's most successful water weapon. After 8 years of inventing and innovating a high performance toy water gun, the Power Drencher (eventually renamed the Super Soaker) was born. The "water weaponry revolution" began in 1989 (Johnson 1).
Some errors that could arise from this type of source include biases and limited points of views that lead to misinformation. However, using secondary sources does not detract from Chase’s ability to construct a general theory about firearms development, because a general theory does not require absolute accuracy. Chase also uses many paintings to show military formations in past societies and what weapons they possessed. The conclusions he makes are rational and the inclusion of the paintings provides visually engaging primary sources that further justify Chase’s thesis. Using more primary sources would strengthen the credibility of his descriptions of firearms development in the world, but his construction of a rational theory based on known facts is enough to give this work acceptable credibility.
What would you do without the modern day revolver? Samuel Colt was one of the best gunmakers and had an even better gun company. Samuel Colt was such a skilled gunsmith by making the revolving cylinder and by getting a good manufacturing plant(Lee). Also he made many guns. Some other things he did was by selling the guns directly to the soldiers, and by selling some his weapons to the United States military. Samuel Colt revolutionized the gun company because he made the revolving cylinder, he persevered his company, and he made perfected and perfected his and other companies gun designs.
to James “Tiger” Knowles, Tiger brought a borrowed firearm. Henry Francis Hays took part in
In response to a request by a patron, a search of the copyright status for the book Texas Guns by Paul Lehman was conducted. This report discusses the steps taken and the information that was found during that investigation.
...waste ammunition.” During the war colonel Hiram Berdan formed a regiment of sharpshooter for the union army called Berdans sharpshooters. These new soldiers would be better shooters against their enemy and would be save great amounts of ammunition and money. Contests were held across the country to find these elite sharpshooters. To make the cut you had put 10 consecutive shots into a target at two hundred yards. Each shot couldn’t be more than to inches from the center of the bull’s eye. At the end of these contests 1,000 winners were enlisted in the 1st United States sharper shooters. The next generation of breechloaders called magazine rifles would prove ever more deadly to confederate opponents. “Guns such as Spencer and Henry repeating rifles were deigned to carry preloaded magazine of seven to fifteen bullets which could be inserted into the rear of the gun.”3
The Taming of the West: Age of the Gunfighter: Men and Weapons of the Frontier 1840-1900.
Cornell, Saul. A Well-regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.
This was the self contained brass cartridge. It contained an ignition source called a primer, an amount of powder and a bullet. Early cartridge guns were converted percussion rifles. The first repeating rifles were the Henry and Spencer, the Henry had a fifteen shot internal magazine and the Spencer a seven round removable magazine this meant multiple could be carried. Repeaters were not limited to rifles though handguns such as the famous Colt Single Action Army were a common favorite among both civilians and military personnel. The industrial revolution boosted the firearms industry. It allowed gunsmiths who formerly would cut rifling and make parts by hand using saws and files to now use vertical mills and lathes to improve both output and precision. Barrels became easier to rifle and take to size using lathes and mills allowed sights to be manufactured much easier. The next major evolutionary step in the firearms industry was the bolt action rifle. A bolt action provides a tighter seal at the breach than other actions allowing higher pressure cartridges and a farther effective range do to increased velocity The first bolt action used by the U.S. military was the Krag-Jorgensen a Norwegian rifle with a internal side loading magazine. It was thought by many that the Krag was was an exceptional piece of equipment but during the Spanish - American War it was proved otherwise. Spaniards armed with German Mausers a rifle with a
gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back
Talking about the history of BB guns brings much scope for pointing out as many interesting facts related to BB guns, as possible. Therefore, it must be mentioned without fail that the first BB was actually a shotgun shot, which was sized no more than .180 i...
Tushnet, Mark V. Out of Range: Why the Constitution Can't End the Battle over Guns. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
Lee, Robert W. "Gun Report: The Buford Furrow Tragedy." The New American 15 (1999): 33
Actually that came from another characteristic of a western, the conflict between settlers and Indians, after being raised with the Indians for three years he had killed several settlers. Then after he had left the Indians side to join the white mans army he killed many more Indians, that's how he had crafted his skills as a gunman and survivalist. It even is shown in the story that he has been killing for years, when he kills the first two Indians, he has a fast and accurate shooting style. Also he has the background to know were others may be hiding such as in a bush, or
'This radical discrepancy between the sense of eroding masculinity and the view of America as a great history of men against the wilderness has created the need for a means of symbolic expression of masculine potency in an unmistakable way. This means is the gun, particularly the six-gun'; (Crane 299).