Percussion revolver (Colt)
Revólver de percusión (Colt)
- Date
- 1835-1836 · confidence high
- Place
- Paterson, New Jersey, United States
- Credited to
- Samuel Colt
- People
- 👤 Samuel Colt1814–1862
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A pistol with a rotating cylinder of five or six chambers that turned on cocking, made with interchangeable parts and specialised machinery. The first practical, mass-produced repeating firearm.
British patent of 1835 and American patent of 1836; Elisha Collier had patented a flintlock revolver in London in 1818. The first factory (Paterson) went bankrupt in 1842; success came with the Walker Colt (1847) and Hartford.
What it led to
- The Hartford factory (1855) as a model of the 'American system'
- The conquest of the West, wars against the Comanche and the American Civil War
- Gun culture in the United States
- Modern industrial marketing (Colt as a global brand)
Built on
- Interchangeable parts1785-1801
- Percussion cap and priming1807 (cápsula c. 1814-1822)
- Milling machinec. 1818
- Percussion cap
- Collier's flintlock revolver (1818)
Made possible
- Colt Walker1847
- Semi-automatic pistol (Borchardt C-93)1893
- Metallic-cartridge revolver (Smith & Wesson, 1857)
- Mass production of handguns