August 19, 2024 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Phil Anschutz writes in Out Where The West Begins: “Samuel Colt’s life was the American story written in capital letters.” Here to tell the story is Ashley Hlebinsky, the former co-host of Discovery Channel’s “Master of Arms,” the former curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum, and president of The Gun Code, LLC.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Can we continue with our American stories? Samuel Coult became
America's first industrial tycoon, and his faithful wife Elizabeth proved
herself to be no less extraordinary, making Sam Coult's legend
bigger than ever and his empire her own. Bill Answertz
writes in his book Out Where the West Begins, Samuel
(00:40):
Colt's life was the American story written in capital letters.
Here to tell the story is Ashley Lebinsky, the former
co host of Discovery Channel's Master of Arms, the former
curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum, and President
of the Gun Code LLLC. Eressh.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
There's a famous quote that, well, there's lots of variations
on this quote, but basically that God made man and
Sam Colt made them equal. Not one hundred percent sure
if that quote actually happened, but it certainly exemplifies the
legend that is Samuel Colt. But the story behind Sam
(01:25):
Colt is that he was the first person to make
a commercially successful revolver. And you're not familiar with a revolver,
it kind of describes itself when you think about the technology.
So you have a pistol or a rifle. He actually
made some shotguns, and you've got this cylinder that would rotate,
(01:46):
it would revolve, and you had ultimately five or six rounds.
His guns varied early on, and you would load each
round into the gun and then you would cock the
hammer and allowing the cylinder to rotate in order to
fire the next round, which is a pretty revolutionary concept
in firearms design because prior to really the industrial period
(02:10):
in the United States and overseas, guns were individually made
or produced in an armory, and so those guns were
typically single shot.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It's important to note that repeaters have.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Been around since the at least the fourteen hundreds, but
they were popular more on the civilian market than they
were in the military. They didn't really have a military purpose,
and part of that's because the government's a little slow
to adopt new things. But it really becomes both a
civilian and military firearm around the time of Sam Colt. Now,
he wasn't the first person to make a revolver, and
(02:44):
that's important to note, and he was one of the
first people where you didn't have to advance the cylinder yourself.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
But there were revolving.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Mechanisms as far back as the fifteen hundreds, and so
he did get inspiration from those things, although he might
deny that he got inspiration from those things, but it'd
be kind of hard to believe that he had never
seen this firearm that was, you know, produced and people
didn't know about it, but he did create one that
is now so famous and so synonymous with his name,
(03:14):
it's easy to just associate him with the first. He
starts off his life though, being a little mischievous, and
so he has to get really serious really quickly because
his father's kind of fed.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Up with his lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And he starts at the Amherst Academy in Massachusetts for school,
but he's expelled from the school, and so he was
sent out to see on the Corvo and he did
that for many years, around eighteen thirty and on that ship,
as Colt would recount, he would become fascinated with the
(03:49):
ship's wheel and the way that the wheel rotated. And
there's also a story that he like kind of whittled
a wooden goun and so he really started to try
to ate what would become one of the most iconic
firearms in American history and international history. Initially, though, he
has to go over to England to get his revolver noticed,
(04:12):
and the first patent that he takes out is an
eighteen thirty five. But in the United States he does
take out a patent, two patents actually in eighteen thirty six,
one in February and one in April. There was a
patent process in the United States that dates the seventeen nineties,
but it was kind of a hot mess, and so
there wasn't really this kind of full movement to patent
your invention until this time period. There was a standardization
(04:37):
that was the Patent Act of eighteen thirty six, and
so after eighteen thirty six you see all kinds of
patents and people suing each other and trying to make things.
And Colt really gets in on the ground floor in
the United States with his at the time five shot revolver.
And while we associate him with a handgun, that initial
patent was actually for a rifle as well, and so
(04:59):
he would make both. He loved his rifle like nobody
else did. But he loved his rifle, and so he
would make several different designs off of that revolving mechanism.
And so he starts to make what is ultimately called
the Patterson Revolver is the one that's associated with his
first real product, and that's because of his factory that
he put into place in Patterson, New Jersey, and that
(05:22):
was ultimately funded mostly by his family, and it's ultimately
a business failure for him. He really struggled in business.
I mean, his company went bankrupt a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
But the one thing that he was was a salesman.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
And there are stories and basically hawking his own firearms
on the battlefield to try to get people to purchase
his firearms. So what he maybe lacked in complete business
management prowess, he made up for in making people excited
for his product. One of the more iconic revolvers that
(05:54):
came after the Patterson and all the different variations of
the Patterson was the Walker Revolver and it was ultimately
designed in concert with a Texas ranger named Samuel Walker,
and it was used by them on the battlefield in Texas.
And it was a big gun, heavy caliber, kind of
(06:14):
had some issues. You see the incorporation of what's called
a loading lever, so it actually swings down and helps
to load the gun to pack it in. Unfortunately, if
you fired one like I have, the loading lever didn't
have any type of catch, so it would often fall
down and get stuck in the cylinder and you'd have
to push it back up and then.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Fire it again. But still revolutionary for its time.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
But it was one of those things that I mean,
I can't even imagine being on the battlefield and not
being familiar with a revolver and expecting a single shot
gun and then coming at the barrel of a repeating
firearm that doesn't have to be reloaded every time.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So it's one of those things.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That is progressive and also incites a lot of fear
into people who are on the.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Receiving end of it.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
The really interesting thing about this patent that is a
smart move for Colt is that he owned the legal
right to make this type of technology, so he basically,
even though he couldn't really get his stuff together always
in his business side, he had the market. Other people
could not make that gun in that configuration, and he
(07:20):
actually was able to get the patent extended, so it
didn't expire until the eighteen fifties, so you have the
market for twenty years. But there were people waiting in
the wings, and Colt did make some missteps and one
of those missteps was that he had a guy named
Roland White who worked for him, who developed this kind
of ingenious piece of technology where instead of having to
(07:42):
awkwardly load the revolver from the front of the cylinder,
he actually made it so it was called a board
through cylinder, so you actually could load it from the
back of the gun, which was really impressive for that
time increase the speed of everything.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
And he brought it to Colt and he was like,
look at.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
This thing that I've got, and Colt was like, no,
we're good, thank you. And Roland White would I always
say it goes across the street to Smith and Wesson,
but that's not really accurate. But he basically goes to
Smith and Wesson, who would become, you know, one of
the other iconic names associated with the revolver early on
in history, and he has his own very complicated history
(08:20):
with Smith and Wesson.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
He takes its design. It's what Smith and Wesson is
known for.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Unfortunately, he didn't make a great deal with them as
a war broke out, where he had to basically legally
defend his patent. But when the war breaks out and
everyone has to make as many farms as possible. There's
a lot of patent infringement, and he very much gets
hit hard with that since Smith and Wesson was smart
enough to make the deal, but we don't have to
(08:45):
talk about Roland White.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Colt messed up and Smith and wasn't was smart.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So as soon as Colt's patent expired, and I think
believe eighteen fifty seven, Smith and Wesson, you know, popped
up quickly.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
And you've been listening to Ashley Lebinski tell the story
of Samuel Cult and it's a story about so much
from manufacturing two sales itself and salesmanship. When we come
back more of the story of Samuel Colt here on
our American stories and we continue with our American stories
(09:44):
and the story of Samuel Cult. When we last left off,
it was with Roland White leaving Cult after his new
design was rejected. White took his board through idea over
to Cult's competitor, Smith and Wesson. Let's return to this
story of sam Coult with our storyteller, Ashley Libinski.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
So now you've got some competition in the market for Colt.
You've got Colt, You've got Smith and Wesson, you've got Remington.
All names that are still pretty well known today for firearms,
and in some way some configuration are still around, and
so everyone kind of gets into the kind of mass
production of firearms for the American Civil War, which starts
(10:26):
in eighteen sixty one, so that's, you know, five years after,
you start getting more revolvers on the market, and handguns
become a lot more efficient on the battlefield. Prior to that,
you know, officers carry them, but.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
In the Civil War you.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Had officers carrying handguns, but then you also had soldiers purchasing.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Firearms, including colts.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Prices were relatively reasonable, I guess for the time, so
you would have soldiers individuals that would buy the gun
if they were not issued anything.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And so it.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Becomes kind of a change in the way that we
perceive technology on the battlefield, which is interesting because there's
a lot of repeating technology in rifle form that is
available during the Civil War, but it's not adopted as
readily and as passionately as people.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Adopted the revolver.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Samuel Colt was not always known for being easy to
get along with, and while he was a great salesman
and a great.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Inventor, he had.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Some missteps towards the end of his life, and one
of the biggest issues in one of the controversies that
surrounded his life was not leading up to the American
Civil War, he had clients down in the South that
he continued to sell to as tensions were brewing between
the Union and the Confederacy, and he did claim that
(11:51):
the second the war broke out, or they knew what
was happening that he was, there were going to be
no guns going down there.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
But the damage was already done.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Whatever his logic and reason were for continuing to supply
firearms to the South leading up to the war, it
really did so much damage to his personal reputation. And
while he did ultimately get a you know, a regiment
of unit during the Civil War and hopefully he was
hoping that would help everything.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
They did go on.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Colonel Sam Quolt Zone he got that title before he
died in eighteen sixty two of rheumatism. So the fascinating
part of this story is that a lot of the
guns that we associate quote unquote with Colt, you know,
the cult single Action the Western Colts, had nothing to
do with and a lot of people, you know, still
associate his name with designs that happened a decade after
(12:43):
he died, and it's kind of all held together by
his widow, who is, in my opinion, responsible for the
cult legacy continuing on. She her name was Elizabeth Jarvis Colts.
She was born to a socialite family in Hartford, Connecticut,
where the factory would end up, and she very quickly
(13:05):
overnight becomes the major shareholder of Colt's patent firearms manufacturing company.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And one of the things that.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Also is really she's really passionate about is her father's
an episcopal minister, so she will stay very close to
the church and charity for the rest of her life.
She was one of the richest women in America at
the time. She inherited millions of dollars and the controlling
interest in Colt. Her brother actually ran the company for
(13:33):
a little bit after another designer who had taken over
the company, Alicia k.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Root, died and she had a tragic story as well.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So she lost her husband, but she also lost initially
two children in infancy. She was pregnant when Colt died,
and I believe she lost one other child. So her
only surviving child was someone named Coldwell Colt, and so
she was kind of marred by all of that tragedy,
but she was so well liked by the community that
(14:04):
she was known as the first Lady of Hartford, and
that was because of her creation of gardens, her love
of the workers in the Cult Factory, and her kind
of hutzba for the fact that Confederate sympathizers burned down
the factory in eighteen sixty four, and she rebuilt and
(14:26):
she recreated this onion dome that was iconic and associated
with the factory. And she always took care of the
workers that they had. The Cult manufacturing facility actually housed
a lot of their workers. They had sports teams for them,
they had music performances, they had educational opportunities for the
families that worked for the Cult factory, and she continued
(14:48):
to really cultivate that environment.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
And one of the things that she did, which was
probably more.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Or less successful, was she created a church on site
of kind of the entire Coltsville as it's called, and
one of her hopes was that executives and workers alike could.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Go and worship. And it's fascinating architecture. You can go
look at it today.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
It incorporates so many facets of technology, you know, revolving
cylinders built into the architecture tools. I mean everywhere there's
something related to firearms. And of course she had to
mortalize her husband in many, many different ways. She had
statues erected where he's you know, whittling the wood model
(15:34):
of his cult. And she also included a beautiful stained
glass pane in the church where she casually incorporated Sam
cult into a biblical legend.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
So she wanted to not only run.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
A successful company and take care of people in Hartford,
she also immortalized his lifetime.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
And to some extent, you.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Hear stories about Sam Coult and they're not in a
very favorable light. He was difficult to get along with,
and he he struggled sometimes as a businessman. And so
when you hear Cold today, you don't always hear that story.
And I think Elizabeth played a very big role in
kind of rebranding him after his passing and creating all
(16:19):
of these things where his statue surrounded by community prosperity,
and it changed a little bit of the way that
the company was perceived. Now, she died in nineteen oh five,
so she outlived her husband significantly. But Cold really was
getting started at that point, and so her legacy kind
(16:42):
of still stands with all of the gardens. She actually
took her property Arms Mirror, the house that she and
Cold had, you know, lived in built together, and she
turned it into a home for the widows of episcopal minister.
So she kind of comes full circle with all of
that taking care of people in the community. But there
(17:02):
are also some iconic developments that happened that put Colt
on the map in terms of design and functionality and
the future of the company. And this is done by
several designers that work for the factory whose names are
lesser known, and that would be the designers of the
Colt Model eighteen seventy three single action army, which has
(17:22):
been seen in pretty much every Western film ever made.
And then also they were on the forefront of automatic technology.
Automatic technology, very loosely, is that you have a gun
where you press the trigger and it continuously fires until
you either release the trigger, you run.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Out of ammunition, which happened most of the time, or
the fire malfunction.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And they worked with a very well known designer named
John Moses Browning early on to create what's called the
Colt Model eighteen ninety five, so believe that you have
machine guns in eighteen ninety five that are being used
at the Battle of San Juan Hill in eighteen ninety eight.
And then he also works with Browning to create a
semi automatic pistol. Semi automatic technology means every time you
(18:05):
press the trigger, it fires one round, but it automatically
rechambers and round so you can fire another one. And
the gun that's most associated with that, although there were
various versions before, this is the Cold Model nineteen eleven,
which is still very very popular today. So you've got
a man with an idea, you've got a troublemaker with
an idea, you've got a personality with an idea, and
(18:27):
he takes that and he, while not always successful, surrounds
himself with people that do also know what they're doing.
And I guess to some extent, he surrounds himself with
the right woman because she was able to, you know,
really be the face of the company and run the
company with her brother for a little bit and basically
build up this entire reputation for her husband.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
It's kind of sad that we don't always hear her.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Name, because you've got a woman, you know, that's now
inheriting a major manufacturing facility after her husband's death and
rebuilds when she needs to rebuild, and does saw much
for a community, and because of her generosity, because of
her charity, I think we remember sam Colt in a
different light, and she's ultimately responsible for how we perceive
(19:15):
all of that today.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
For good, bad, and indifferent, I guess.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
And a terrific job on the production by Greg Hengler
and a special thanks to Ashley Lebinski, the former co
host of the Discovery Channel's Master of Arms, the former
curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum and president
of the Gun Code. And she was so right. He
was a troublemaker and a person with an idea, he
(19:42):
said of Samuel Colt. And he surrounded himself with the
right people and in the end the right woman. And
after his premature death in eighteen sixty two, is bride
Elizabeth would live another few decades and set the company
right and set up Colt for e greater success and recognition.
(20:03):
The story of Samuel Colt and the birth of the
Revolver here on our American Stories
Can we continue with our American stories? Samuel Coult became
America's first industrial tycoon, and his faithful wife Elizabeth proved
herself to be no less extraordinary, making Sam Coult's legend
bigger than ever and his empire her own. Bill Answertz
writes in his book Out Where the West Begins, Samuel
(00:40):
Colt's life was the American story written in capital letters.
Here to tell the story is Ashley Lebinsky, the former
co host of Discovery Channel's Master of Arms, the former
curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum, and President
of the Gun Code LLLC. Eressh.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
There's a famous quote that, well, there's lots of variations
on this quote, but basically that God made man and
Sam Colt made them equal. Not one hundred percent sure
if that quote actually happened, but it certainly exemplifies the
legend that is Samuel Colt. But the story behind Sam
(01:25):
Colt is that he was the first person to make
a commercially successful revolver. And you're not familiar with a revolver,
it kind of describes itself when you think about the technology.
So you have a pistol or a rifle. He actually
made some shotguns, and you've got this cylinder that would rotate,
(01:46):
it would revolve, and you had ultimately five or six rounds.
His guns varied early on, and you would load each
round into the gun and then you would cock the
hammer and allowing the cylinder to rotate in order to
fire the next round, which is a pretty revolutionary concept
in firearms design because prior to really the industrial period
(02:10):
in the United States and overseas, guns were individually made
or produced in an armory, and so those guns were
typically single shot.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It's important to note that repeaters have.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Been around since the at least the fourteen hundreds, but
they were popular more on the civilian market than they
were in the military. They didn't really have a military purpose,
and part of that's because the government's a little slow
to adopt new things. But it really becomes both a
civilian and military firearm around the time of Sam Colt. Now,
he wasn't the first person to make a revolver, and
(02:44):
that's important to note, and he was one of the
first people where you didn't have to advance the cylinder yourself.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
But there were revolving.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Mechanisms as far back as the fifteen hundreds, and so
he did get inspiration from those things, although he might
deny that he got inspiration from those things, but it'd
be kind of hard to believe that he had never
seen this firearm that was, you know, produced and people
didn't know about it, but he did create one that
is now so famous and so synonymous with his name,
(03:14):
it's easy to just associate him with the first. He
starts off his life though, being a little mischievous, and
so he has to get really serious really quickly because
his father's kind of fed.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Up with his lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And he starts at the Amherst Academy in Massachusetts for school,
but he's expelled from the school, and so he was
sent out to see on the Corvo and he did
that for many years, around eighteen thirty and on that ship,
as Colt would recount, he would become fascinated with the
(03:49):
ship's wheel and the way that the wheel rotated. And
there's also a story that he like kind of whittled
a wooden goun and so he really started to try
to ate what would become one of the most iconic
firearms in American history and international history. Initially, though, he
has to go over to England to get his revolver noticed,
(04:12):
and the first patent that he takes out is an
eighteen thirty five. But in the United States he does
take out a patent, two patents actually in eighteen thirty six,
one in February and one in April. There was a
patent process in the United States that dates the seventeen nineties,
but it was kind of a hot mess, and so
there wasn't really this kind of full movement to patent
your invention until this time period. There was a standardization
(04:37):
that was the Patent Act of eighteen thirty six, and
so after eighteen thirty six you see all kinds of
patents and people suing each other and trying to make things.
And Colt really gets in on the ground floor in
the United States with his at the time five shot revolver.
And while we associate him with a handgun, that initial
patent was actually for a rifle as well, and so
(04:59):
he would make both. He loved his rifle like nobody
else did. But he loved his rifle, and so he
would make several different designs off of that revolving mechanism.
And so he starts to make what is ultimately called
the Patterson Revolver is the one that's associated with his
first real product, and that's because of his factory that
he put into place in Patterson, New Jersey, and that
(05:22):
was ultimately funded mostly by his family, and it's ultimately
a business failure for him. He really struggled in business.
I mean, his company went bankrupt a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
But the one thing that he was was a salesman.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
And there are stories and basically hawking his own firearms
on the battlefield to try to get people to purchase
his firearms. So what he maybe lacked in complete business
management prowess, he made up for in making people excited
for his product. One of the more iconic revolvers that
(05:54):
came after the Patterson and all the different variations of
the Patterson was the Walker Revolver and it was ultimately
designed in concert with a Texas ranger named Samuel Walker,
and it was used by them on the battlefield in Texas.
And it was a big gun, heavy caliber, kind of
(06:14):
had some issues. You see the incorporation of what's called
a loading lever, so it actually swings down and helps
to load the gun to pack it in. Unfortunately, if
you fired one like I have, the loading lever didn't
have any type of catch, so it would often fall
down and get stuck in the cylinder and you'd have
to push it back up and then.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Fire it again. But still revolutionary for its time.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
But it was one of those things that I mean,
I can't even imagine being on the battlefield and not
being familiar with a revolver and expecting a single shot
gun and then coming at the barrel of a repeating
firearm that doesn't have to be reloaded every time.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So it's one of those things.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That is progressive and also incites a lot of fear
into people who are on the.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Receiving end of it.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
The really interesting thing about this patent that is a
smart move for Colt is that he owned the legal
right to make this type of technology, so he basically,
even though he couldn't really get his stuff together always
in his business side, he had the market. Other people
could not make that gun in that configuration, and he
(07:20):
actually was able to get the patent extended, so it
didn't expire until the eighteen fifties, so you have the
market for twenty years. But there were people waiting in
the wings, and Colt did make some missteps and one
of those missteps was that he had a guy named
Roland White who worked for him, who developed this kind
of ingenious piece of technology where instead of having to
(07:42):
awkwardly load the revolver from the front of the cylinder,
he actually made it so it was called a board
through cylinder, so you actually could load it from the
back of the gun, which was really impressive for that
time increase the speed of everything.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
And he brought it to Colt and he was like,
look at.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
This thing that I've got, and Colt was like, no,
we're good, thank you. And Roland White would I always
say it goes across the street to Smith and Wesson,
but that's not really accurate. But he basically goes to
Smith and Wesson, who would become, you know, one of
the other iconic names associated with the revolver early on
in history, and he has his own very complicated history
(08:20):
with Smith and Wesson.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
He takes its design. It's what Smith and Wesson is
known for.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Unfortunately, he didn't make a great deal with them as
a war broke out, where he had to basically legally
defend his patent. But when the war breaks out and
everyone has to make as many farms as possible. There's
a lot of patent infringement, and he very much gets
hit hard with that since Smith and Wesson was smart
enough to make the deal, but we don't have to
(08:45):
talk about Roland White.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Colt messed up and Smith and wasn't was smart.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So as soon as Colt's patent expired, and I think
believe eighteen fifty seven, Smith and Wesson, you know, popped
up quickly.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
And you've been listening to Ashley Lebinski tell the story
of Samuel Cult and it's a story about so much
from manufacturing two sales itself and salesmanship. When we come
back more of the story of Samuel Colt here on
our American stories and we continue with our American stories
(09:44):
and the story of Samuel Cult. When we last left off,
it was with Roland White leaving Cult after his new
design was rejected. White took his board through idea over
to Cult's competitor, Smith and Wesson. Let's return to this
story of sam Coult with our storyteller, Ashley Libinski.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
So now you've got some competition in the market for Colt.
You've got Colt, You've got Smith and Wesson, you've got Remington.
All names that are still pretty well known today for firearms,
and in some way some configuration are still around, and
so everyone kind of gets into the kind of mass
production of firearms for the American Civil War, which starts
(10:26):
in eighteen sixty one, so that's, you know, five years after,
you start getting more revolvers on the market, and handguns
become a lot more efficient on the battlefield. Prior to that,
you know, officers carry them, but.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
In the Civil War you.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Had officers carrying handguns, but then you also had soldiers purchasing.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Firearms, including colts.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Prices were relatively reasonable, I guess for the time, so
you would have soldiers individuals that would buy the gun
if they were not issued anything.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
And so it.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Becomes kind of a change in the way that we
perceive technology on the battlefield, which is interesting because there's
a lot of repeating technology in rifle form that is
available during the Civil War, but it's not adopted as
readily and as passionately as people.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Adopted the revolver.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Samuel Colt was not always known for being easy to
get along with, and while he was a great salesman
and a great.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Inventor, he had.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Some missteps towards the end of his life, and one
of the biggest issues in one of the controversies that
surrounded his life was not leading up to the American
Civil War, he had clients down in the South that
he continued to sell to as tensions were brewing between
the Union and the Confederacy, and he did claim that
(11:51):
the second the war broke out, or they knew what
was happening that he was, there were going to be
no guns going down there.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
But the damage was already done.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Whatever his logic and reason were for continuing to supply
firearms to the South leading up to the war, it
really did so much damage to his personal reputation. And
while he did ultimately get a you know, a regiment
of unit during the Civil War and hopefully he was
hoping that would help everything.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
They did go on.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Colonel Sam Quolt Zone he got that title before he
died in eighteen sixty two of rheumatism. So the fascinating
part of this story is that a lot of the
guns that we associate quote unquote with Colt, you know,
the cult single Action the Western Colts, had nothing to
do with and a lot of people, you know, still
associate his name with designs that happened a decade after
(12:43):
he died, and it's kind of all held together by
his widow, who is, in my opinion, responsible for the
cult legacy continuing on. She her name was Elizabeth Jarvis Colts.
She was born to a socialite family in Hartford, Connecticut,
where the factory would end up, and she very quickly
(13:05):
overnight becomes the major shareholder of Colt's patent firearms manufacturing company.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And one of the things that.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Also is really she's really passionate about is her father's
an episcopal minister, so she will stay very close to
the church and charity for the rest of her life.
She was one of the richest women in America at
the time. She inherited millions of dollars and the controlling
interest in Colt. Her brother actually ran the company for
(13:33):
a little bit after another designer who had taken over
the company, Alicia k.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Root, died and she had a tragic story as well.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So she lost her husband, but she also lost initially
two children in infancy. She was pregnant when Colt died,
and I believe she lost one other child. So her
only surviving child was someone named Coldwell Colt, and so
she was kind of marred by all of that tragedy,
but she was so well liked by the community that
(14:04):
she was known as the first Lady of Hartford, and
that was because of her creation of gardens, her love
of the workers in the Cult Factory, and her kind
of hutzba for the fact that Confederate sympathizers burned down
the factory in eighteen sixty four, and she rebuilt and
(14:26):
she recreated this onion dome that was iconic and associated
with the factory. And she always took care of the
workers that they had. The Cult manufacturing facility actually housed
a lot of their workers. They had sports teams for them,
they had music performances, they had educational opportunities for the
families that worked for the Cult factory, and she continued
(14:48):
to really cultivate that environment.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
And one of the things that she did, which was
probably more.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Or less successful, was she created a church on site
of kind of the entire Coltsville as it's called, and
one of her hopes was that executives and workers alike could.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Go and worship. And it's fascinating architecture. You can go
look at it today.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
It incorporates so many facets of technology, you know, revolving
cylinders built into the architecture tools. I mean everywhere there's
something related to firearms. And of course she had to
mortalize her husband in many, many different ways. She had
statues erected where he's you know, whittling the wood model
(15:34):
of his cult. And she also included a beautiful stained
glass pane in the church where she casually incorporated Sam
cult into a biblical legend.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
So she wanted to not only run.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
A successful company and take care of people in Hartford,
she also immortalized his lifetime.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
And to some extent, you.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Hear stories about Sam Coult and they're not in a
very favorable light. He was difficult to get along with,
and he he struggled sometimes as a businessman. And so
when you hear Cold today, you don't always hear that story.
And I think Elizabeth played a very big role in
kind of rebranding him after his passing and creating all
(16:19):
of these things where his statue surrounded by community prosperity,
and it changed a little bit of the way that
the company was perceived. Now, she died in nineteen oh five,
so she outlived her husband significantly. But Cold really was
getting started at that point, and so her legacy kind
(16:42):
of still stands with all of the gardens. She actually
took her property Arms Mirror, the house that she and
Cold had, you know, lived in built together, and she
turned it into a home for the widows of episcopal minister.
So she kind of comes full circle with all of
that taking care of people in the community. But there
(17:02):
are also some iconic developments that happened that put Colt
on the map in terms of design and functionality and
the future of the company. And this is done by
several designers that work for the factory whose names are
lesser known, and that would be the designers of the
Colt Model eighteen seventy three single action army, which has
(17:22):
been seen in pretty much every Western film ever made.
And then also they were on the forefront of automatic technology.
Automatic technology, very loosely, is that you have a gun
where you press the trigger and it continuously fires until
you either release the trigger, you run.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Out of ammunition, which happened most of the time, or
the fire malfunction.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And they worked with a very well known designer named
John Moses Browning early on to create what's called the
Colt Model eighteen ninety five, so believe that you have
machine guns in eighteen ninety five that are being used
at the Battle of San Juan Hill in eighteen ninety eight.
And then he also works with Browning to create a
semi automatic pistol. Semi automatic technology means every time you
(18:05):
press the trigger, it fires one round, but it automatically
rechambers and round so you can fire another one. And
the gun that's most associated with that, although there were
various versions before, this is the Cold Model nineteen eleven,
which is still very very popular today. So you've got
a man with an idea, you've got a troublemaker with
an idea, you've got a personality with an idea, and
(18:27):
he takes that and he, while not always successful, surrounds
himself with people that do also know what they're doing.
And I guess to some extent, he surrounds himself with
the right woman because she was able to, you know,
really be the face of the company and run the
company with her brother for a little bit and basically
build up this entire reputation for her husband.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
It's kind of sad that we don't always hear her.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Name, because you've got a woman, you know, that's now
inheriting a major manufacturing facility after her husband's death and
rebuilds when she needs to rebuild, and does saw much
for a community, and because of her generosity, because of
her charity, I think we remember sam Colt in a
different light, and she's ultimately responsible for how we perceive
(19:15):
all of that today.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
For good, bad, and indifferent, I guess.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
And a terrific job on the production by Greg Hengler
and a special thanks to Ashley Lebinski, the former co
host of the Discovery Channel's Master of Arms, the former
curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum and president
of the Gun Code. And she was so right. He
was a troublemaker and a person with an idea, he
(19:42):
said of Samuel Colt. And he surrounded himself with the
right people and in the end the right woman. And
after his premature death in eighteen sixty two, is bride
Elizabeth would live another few decades and set the company
right and set up Colt for e greater success and recognition.
(20:03):
The story of Samuel Colt and the birth of the
Revolver here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.