Samuel Colt

Samuel Colt (1814 to 1862) was an American inventor, industrialist and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company and made the mass production of revolvers commercially viable. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, he applied for a patent for a revolving gun and was granted it in February 1836. His first ventures, producing firearms in Paterson, New Jersey, and making underwater mines, were followed by rapid growth after 1847, when the Texas Rangers ordered one thousand revolvers during the war with Mexico. During the American Civil War his Hartford factory supplied firearms to both North and South, and his guns were widely used in the settling of the western frontier. His manufacturing methods used interchangeable parts and an early form of assembly line, and he was also a pioneer of advertising, celebrity endorsement and mass marketing. He was one of the wealthiest men in the United States when he died.