Happy Birthday Samuel Colt:
Today is the anniversary of the 1814 birth of Samuel Colt. Not only was Samuel Colt one of the greatest firearms designers of all time, he was also a brilliant industrialist, a philanthropist, and an outstanding pro-labor employer. In 2002, I wrote an article in support of making the Coltsville manufacturing area into a National Park. In 2008, the area became a National Historic Landmark; the campaign for National Park status continues.
I think it's arguable. Sam Colt was certainly a great firearms designer. But I think I would have to go with Browning too. He is basically the father of the modern semi-automatic pistol. There are a lot of semi-auto pistols out there, of course, almost all of them based off his designs.
I also think one has to recognize that the Army, with millions and million spent in research and engineering money, still can't find a better replacement for the M2 .50 Caliber Machine Gun, which by now has been in service for nearly 90 years.
And you're ok with this...? Agitating for a blatantly unconstitutional action by government to serve owns own private interests is morally repugnant.
Your spelling and your legal analysis both are substandard.
Wow, I love this.
If this was a religious discussion, and it almost is, putting John Moses Browning PBUH on the same plane as Mauser and Kalashnikov would earn you a stoning.
A little bit of one. IIRC (and it's been thirty years since I was really familiar with firearms history) Colt's real invention was the hand and bolt method of rotating and locking up a revolver's cylinder. Everything after that was an elaboration on the basic invention. Browning, on the other hand, invented many different firearms - most, brilliantly. And Mannlicher, who I considered the greatest gun designer of all, seems to have invented almost every modern type of firearm, at least on paper, by 1885.
Still, that's not to take away from Colt's excellence as an engineer and entrepreneur. But others did more innovating of firearms.
In the Army I carried the Browning designed, Colt manufactured, 1911 before the transition to the Beretta, which I carried until my retirement.
As a police officer I've carried a 1911 (Kimber) and a variation with a larger capacity magazine (built by the Texas company STI). I now carry the Croatian-designed Springfield XD and a Heckler &Koch, neither of which are Browning designed.
I also love revolvers (I have several-all Smith &Wessons, the company that still makes great revolvers) and it was Colt that perfected the revolving cylinder that PersonFromProlock notes. However, I'd say it was his entrepreneurship and efforts to standardize firearms production (interchangeable parts) that made Colt a genius.
Browning, on the other hand, designed the 1911 and a large number of other firearms variations and cartridges (.32 ACP, .38 ACP, .380 ACP, .45 ACP, and .50 BMG), to include rifles, shotguns, and self-loading pistols, that to this day are rarely bettered. His start-up company, which produced a rolling-block rifle, began business in 1852 (as a gunsmith), 10 years before Colt's death.
But, why argue when you can have both? Colt died in 1862 and Browning in 1926. The Colt company and Browning collaborated on a gas-operated machine gun. The Browning firearms company wasn't established until after his death. Instead, Browning spent his life designing firearms mostly for other companies, to include Colt, Winchester, Remington, and FN.
A proposed Coltsville National Park would be different than its current Landmark status. Can you comment on how many Park employees, what facilities, tours, re-creations, re-enactments, etcetera you anticipate under federal Park ownership. In short, what would the Park be like?
Browning was many things, but he was born in 1855.
PersonFromPorlock writes,"Colt's real invention was the hand and bolt method of rotating and locking up a revolver's cylinder. Everything after that ...
Colt's 'real invention' may have been firearms, but his genius was as a capitalist: assembling and creating a manufacturing environment of the highest skilled workers, the most capable equipment, making products in the most efficient way.
Ironically, Colt was not inclined toward capitalism, and achieved success accidentally. His company folded after lobbying the government to buy them, but war with Mexico and westward expansion revived demand for Colt's revolving breech pistols.
In making his 'real invention' Colt created the environment and machinery that produces accurate fitting parts; without which Browning's many inventions would have been paper dreams.
Now, the moving assembly line, that was true manufacturing innovation... and arguably genius...
How utterly oblivious. Assembly lines are dependant on [Samuel Colt's] interchangeable parts.
How utterly oblivious of you to think that Colt invented part interchangeability, which at least as I learned in primary school, came about in this country at Eli Whitney's hand, although as I mentioned earlier, it likely came about in Europe in parallel with that, if not of even earlier Euro invention.
On the other hand, it does appear that real innovation came about in manufacturing in the US, with the concept of a moving assembly line.
Several years ago I read a biography of Thomas Edison and learned he was more of a "developer" than "inventor," which I guess is a nice way of saying that he exploited the ideas of others to enrich himself and, in the process, enriched US consumers as well. No doubt he was an aggressively licensed a number of products that were likely the ideas and inventions of others.
Maybe something similar can be said about Colt (more of a developer who applied the ideas of modern manufacturing to firearms) and, to a lesser extent, Browning. It just appears to be that Browning may have been more of "inventor."
Nobody invented —or could invent— interchangeable parts. It’s a concept, like ‘efficiency’. Factories in the 18th and 19th century saw part interchangeability as a manufacturing goal; accomplishing it was the problem.
It's worrisome you confuse Whitney’s scam with innovation and genuine accomplishment.The first interchangeable wooden parts were in Terry’s clocks about 1815, the first interchangeable metal parts were locks from North and Hall’s gunwork ~1832, and about ten years later Colt's factory revolvers.
Colt didn’t invent the revolver, was not the inventor of interchangeable parts, was not the first to dream of a repeating firearm, and didn’t come up with heavy mechanization in manufacturing; but Colt was the first among all these.
The revolver ‘invented’ previously didn’t work, interchangeable parts cost more than hand-made, previous repeating firearm schemes were expensive and impractical, and mechanized production exchanged quantity for quality.
Samuel Colt made the last tweaks to a revolving cylinder pistol design, and it worked. He slashed manufacturing expenses by using all interchangeable parts, effected by Colt’s decision to put highly skilled workers on the production machine tools. Colt was at the right place and time, but more important, Colt accomplished the right things to create the first practical repeating firearm.
Re-reading Kopel's article, it urges recognition of Sam Colt as a responsible American manufacturer, the recognition of a good business owner.
Colt was no Browning, but Browning was no Colt either. Sam Colt's involvement with firearms was almost incidental, his accomplishments applying to many manufacturing processes.
According to your first post, Colt did: How utterly oblivious. Assembly lines are dependant on [Samuel Colt's] interchangeable parts..
Now you're saying nobody did or could? Have you got your story straight this time?
And no, I didn't confuse Whitney with anything... as obviously, innovation, as always, occurs in parallel in multiple locations, as implied when I mentioned the Euros involvement in same. You appeared to be assigning part interchangeability to one innovator, Colt, and I merely pointed out your mistake.
No, Colt succeeded in producing interchangeable parts. ‘Invented’ is your term, not mine.
rosetta's stones writes:" And no, I didn't confuse Whitney with anything. . .
You claimed Whitney “invented part interchangeability” or at minimum it “came about in this country at Eli Whitney's hand”; both untrue. Confusion, typo or falsification; your choice.
rosetta's stones says, "You appeared to be assigning part interchangeability to one innovator, Colt, and I merely pointed out your mistake."
Colt succeeded in producing all interchangeable parts, the ‘holy grail’ of manufacturing for decades. Many tried and none succeeded until Colt. That achievement was Samuel Colt's, not anyone else's. The mistake was yours.
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