During the 19th century, Colt firearms was one of the leading manufacturers of black powder revolvers. Colt mass produced these revolvers until 1873, when the introduction of smokeless powder and self-contained cartridges made black powder pistols obsolete. The resurgence of these pistols came in 1958, when Italian firearm manufacturers introduced a replica of the 1951 Colt Navy revolver. When these pistols were heavily featured in the Italian "spaghetti" westerns of the 1960s and interest in the revolvers increased, a collaborative effort between Colt and subcontractor Lou Imperato (who was largely responsible for the original replicas) formed and continued until 1993 when Imperato founded Colt Black Powder Arms (which produced the third-generation revolvers until 2002).