Millions from the Mind

Illustrations

Drawing and Specification Segments from
Samuel Colt's First U.S. Revolver Patent

The main parts drawings from Samuel Colt's first U.S. revolving gun patent. Earlier he had patented the same thing in France and England. Study it closely, there will be a test...

Now follow Colt's description above against the Div. 5 drawing sheet shown earlier. Very tough reading and I expect it all just won't "click" in your head. Other people no doubt eventually noticed the same thing and it became an exploitable chink in his armor as we'll see shortly.

The above doesn't look like Colt's famous gun, and it isn't. The revolving cylinder is certainly a precursor to it but the company he and an uncle founded to make these guns and some follow on designs went bankrupt in 1842. Samuel moved on to more interesting things, like helping Samuel F. B. Morse sell his telegraph system to the government. So how did the gun called the "Walker" come to be and how did Eli Whitney figure into that success? Were patents a bane or a boon to Samuel and his company? How did he and the company overcome the problems with patents? And just how do bullets come into the picture?

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