History Question

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huntincowboy

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So the other day I was watching an old documentary on Samuel Colt and had never realized that he could not have invented the Colt Peacemaker due to his death in 1862. I had always taken it that he invented it. Does anyone know who did?
 
That is so interesting to me. I have always taken for granted that Sam Colt invented the Peacemaker. Never even occurred to me that this was impossible. Thanks alot!
 
Sam Colt contributed. It has been said that Colt's held up the production of the Peacemaker, as S&W held the Rollin White "bored-through charge hole in the cylinder for metallic cartridges" patent, which did not expire until late 1869 (see wiki), so they may have had the design "on the board" for a while.

And the SAA's lockwork is not (I believe) substantially different from that of the 1851 Navy, which Sam Colt did design--so he truly designed some of the SAA.
 
Sam Colt's initial patent was for his original lock mechanism and revolving cylinder on his "paterson" models, particularly his method of locking the cylinder in line with the bore. It was inovative but somewhat complex and difficult to make with the tools at that time. His colaberation with Captain Sam Walker of the Texas Rangers resulted in the simplified lock work on the 1847 Army (Walker) model which he promptly patented. All subsequent Colt single-action revolvers used this lockwork albiet somewhat evolved over time. There is no record of Walker's contribution to this process other than his need for a larger caliber gun with military potential.
 
Sam Colt? Long dead, and quickly.

The principles were there but there was nothing re: the '73 that he was involved with. Heck, his entire office was picked over and on display including others' designs, fraudulent copies of Colt's, and prototypes.

Sorry Colt fans.
 
Army Ordnance officers recommended a solid frame revolver as the hinged frame S&W revolvers weren't working out so well in the durability department during testing and trial issues of 1872, but neither did the open top Colts work as well as hoped for either hence the reason for the Ordnance request.

I believe the Rollin White patent expired in 1868 and Colt did release the Open Top 1860 conversion revolvers shortly after.
These competed with the S&W American revolver in those trials of 1871-72
Colt had the Thuer front loading cartridge revolver prior to that but it was no smashing success by any means.

No one person designed the Model P "Strap pistol" as a whole.
A team of engineers came up with the concept, designed the tooling, made the prototypes, and got the thing into production.HTH
 
Never thought about it either. Interesting indeed. Colt's (IMHO) two most
famous pistols the SAA (often called the Colt Peacemaker) and the 1911 (sometimes called a Colt .45) have little/nothing to do with (Samuel) Colt other than his company being the manufacturer.

However, it's actually pretty common when you think about it. How many "Ford" vehicles were designed by Henry Ford (or even a relative)? The true legacy of many people is the success in business rather than (or a combination of) their initial inventions. Many great inventors are not great business men and vice versa. (Nikola Tesla was a great inventor but not businessman and Warren Buffet never invented a revolutionary product to my knowledge but he is a good bussiness man.)
 
The patent expiraton dates are very important when researching and interpreting history about a gun manufacturer.
 
InkEd that is a good point. It is so strange that Colt's two biggest contributions to handguns came after Samuel died. I mean, it seems that I have always heard of SAA's being attributed to Sam Colt. As others have said it is possible that it had been designed and they were waiting on patents to run out. Whatever happed to his son? The documentary said he had one son that survived until adulthood. Didn't give his name. But in those days it wasn't uncommon for a son to carry on the job of his father.
 
Another odd thing is how much handgun technology expanded from 1873-1911. I mean the 1911 design is basically the last major innovation to the mechanics of handguns. Others may be different but are fundamentally the same. The only advances have come in cartridge design. I can't really think of anything else that could be done to the pistol as far as being semi auto or revovler but we are where we have been for a long time.
 
Concur with huntincowboy that handgun designs have not evolved very much since the 1911. Lock-up is still on the same principles as is the magazine designs (double stack magazines were introduced in handguns with the C-96 Mauser). About the only modern addition is the DA/SA trigger and the introduction of polymers for the frame. Things like roll pins to replace solid pins or is the current vogue of rails on the bottom of the frame for mounting accessories is no big thing. Night sites are nice, but it's hardly a leap in technology like the 1911 was.
 
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