Colt, SAMUEL

Colt, SAMUEL, inventor, born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1814, ran away to sea in 1827, and about 1832 travelled over a large part of America, delivering lectures on chemistry by which he obtained the funds required to prosecute his invention. In 1835 he took out his first patent for a revolving pistol, which after the Mexican war was adopted as a regular weapon for the United States army, and since then has been adopted universally. Colt expended over $2,500,000 on an immense armoury in Hartford, where he died 10th January 1862, and where his widow erected a handsome Episcopal church to his memory. See REVOLVER.