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Samuel Colt was born in 1814. He is best known for his invention, the five shot revolver. At a young age Colt was interested in becoming a sailor, and at the age of sixteen signed onto a crew headed for India. It was in India that he saw a gun that inspired him to create the Colt 5 shot. He carved his idea out of reeds, and two years later in 1835 he patented the idea. Even after all of his hard work, his first demo blew up in his hand. In 1842 the Colt Patent Arms Manufacturing Company went bankrupt. He lost everything. However, in 1855 the tables turned, and Colt opened a new factory where they used an assembly line and interchangeable parts, this was a breakthrough concept in factory work at the time. Soon after his new factory opened, the country broke out into the Civil War, and Colt became a very rich man. The army preferred Colt's five shooter to the standard single shot because it shot five continuous bullets instead of only one, even if it did take longer to load. Colt died shortly after in 1862, at the age of 48.
The Colt five shot has five parts: the Trigger, the Stock, the Hammer, the Barrel, and the Sight. All of these important to the operation of the gun.
The revolver effected the Civil War because it lead to new inventions that may have changed the course of the war, inventions like the Gatling Gun. Wars are always a time were artillery inventions thrive, but, without the stepping off point of the Colt five shot, I cannot imagine where artillery technology would be today.
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