Colt's Manufacturing Company

Coordinates: 41°44′19″N 72°43′23″W / 41.7385145°N 72.722959°W / 41.7385145; -72.722959
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Colt's Manufacturing Company, LLC
IndustryArms industry
Founded1855; 169 years ago (1855) (as Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company)
FounderSamuel Colt
HeadquartersHartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Key people
Dennis Veilleux, CEO
ProductsFirearms, weapons
OwnerColt CZ Group
Websitewww.colt.com

Colt's Manufacturing Company, LLC (CMC, formerly Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company) is an American

firearms manufacturer, founded in 1855 by Samuel Colt and now a subsidiary of Czech holding company Colt CZ Group. It is the successor corporation to Colt's earlier firearms-making efforts, which started in 1836. Colt is known for the engineering, production, and marketing of firearms, most especially between the 1850s and World War I, when it was a dominating force in its industry and a seminal influence on manufacturing technology. Colt's earliest designs played a major role in the popularization of the revolver and the shift away from single-shot
pistols. Although Samuel Colt did not invent the revolver concept, his designs resulted in the first very successful model.

The most famous Colt products include the

Colt Commando family, and the M4 carbine
.

In 2002, Colt Defense was split off from Colt's Manufacturing Company. Colt's Manufacturing Company served the civilian market, while Colt Defense served the law enforcement, military, and private security markets worldwide. The two companies remained in the same West Hartford, Connecticut location cross-licensing certain merchandise before reuniting in 2013.[1] Following the loss of its M4 contract in 2013, the reunited Colt was briefly in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, starting in 2015 and emerging in January 2016. The company was bought by Česká zbrojovka Group in 2021.[2][3] In April 2022, Česká zbrojovka Group announced it had changed its name to Colt CZ Group.[4]

History

19th century

1830s–1850s

Colt Model of 1848 Holster Pistol (First Model Dragoon)

Colt First Model Ring Lever rifle beginning in 1837. This was followed shortly thereafter in late 1837 by the introduction of the Colt Paterson.[7][8] This corporation suffered quality problems in production. Making firearms with interchangeable parts was still rather new (it had reached commercial viability only about a decade before), and it was not yet easy to replicate across different factories. Interchangeability was not complete in the Paterson works, and traditional gunsmithing techniques did not fill the gap entirely there. The Colt Paterson revolver found patchy success and failure; some worked well, while others had problems. The United States Marine Corps and United States Army reported quality problems with these earliest Colt revolvers.[6][9] Production had ended at the New Jersey corporation by 1842.[6]

Colt made another attempt at revolver production in 1846 and submitted a prototype to the US government. During the

armory of Whitneyville, Connecticut.[6] This armory was run by the family of Eli Whitney. Eli Whitney Jr (born 1820), the son of the cotton-gin-developer patriarch, was the head of the family armory and a successful arms maker and innovator of the era. Colt used a combination of renting the Whitney firm's facilities and subcontracting parts to the firm to continue his pursuit of revolver manufacture.[10]

Colt's new revolvers found favor with Texan volunteers (the progenitors of later Texas Rangers cavalry groups), and they placed an order for 1,000 revolvers that became known as the Colt Walker, ensuring Colt's continuance in manufacturing revolvers.[9] In 1848, Colt was able to start again with a new business of his own, and 1855, he converted it into a corporation under the name of Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut.[6]

Colt's Armory from an 1857 engraving viewed from the East

Colt purchased a large tract of land beside the Connecticut River, where he built his first factory in 1848, a larger factory called the Colt Armory in 1855, a manor that he called Armsmear in 1856, and employee tenement housing.[6] He established a ten-hour day for employees, installed washing stations in the factory, mandated a one-hour lunch break, and built the Charter Oak Hall, a club where employees could enjoy games, newspapers, and discussion rooms. Colt ran his plant with a military-like discipline, he would fire workers for tardiness, sub-par work or even suggesting improvements to his designs.

In an attempt to attract skilled German workers to his plant, Colt built a village near the factory away from the tenements which he named Coltsville and modeled the homes after a village near Potsdam. In an effort to stem the flooding from the river he planted German osiers, a type of willow tree in a 2-mile long dike. He subsequently built a factory to manufacture wicker furniture made from these trees.

The 1850s were a decade of phenomenal success for the new Colt corporation. Colt was the first to widely commercialize the total use of interchangeable parts throughout a product. It was a leader in

Great Exhibition of 1851 at Hyde Park, London and ingratiated himself by presenting cased engraved Colt revolvers to such appropriate officials as Britain's Master General of the Ordnance.[12] At one exhibit Colt disassembled ten guns and reassembled ten guns using different parts from different guns. As the world's leading proponent of mass production techniques, Colt went on to deliver a lecture on the subject to the Institution of Civil Engineers in London.[13] The membership rewarded his efforts by awarding him the Telford Gold Medal.[14]

Colt's presence in the British market caused years of acrimony and lawsuits among British arms makers, who doubted the validity of Colt's British patent and the desirability of the American system of manufacturing. It took many more years and a UK government commission before the point became universally accepted that such manufacture was possible and economical.[15] Colt opened his London plant on the River Thames at Pimlico and began production on January 1, 1853.[16] Many English people saw Colt's advanced steam-powered machinery as proof of America's growing position as a leader in modern industrial production.[16] On a tour of the factory, Charles Dickens was so impressed with the facilities that he recorded his favorable comments of Colt's revolvers in an 1854 edition of Household Words.[17] Most significant, the Colt factory's machines mass-produced interchangeable parts that could be easily and cheaply put together on assembly lines using standardized patterns and gauges by unskilled labor as opposed to England's top gunmakers.[18]

In 1854 the British

Admiralty ordered 4,000 Navy Model Colt revolvers.[19] In 1855 the British Army placed an order for 5,000 of these revolvers for army issue.[19] Despite a following order later in the year for an additional 9,000 revolvers, Colt failed to convince the British to adopt his revolver as the issue sidearm for the army.[19] Colt began to realize that British sales were failing to meet his expectations. Unable to justify the London factory's expenses, Colt closed the London factory in 1856. Over the next few months his workmen crated and shipped the machinery and disassembled firearms back to America.[15]

Though the U.S. was not directly involved in the

Lincoln miller debuted to industry at these armories.[11]

Colt had set up libraries and educational programs within the plants for his employees.

Worcester R. Warner and Ambrose Swasey (of Warner & Swasey
).

In 1852 an employee of Colt's, Rollin White, came up with the idea of having the revolver cylinder bored through to accept metallic cartridges. He took this idea to Colt who flatly rejected it and ended up firing White within a few years.[21] Colt historian RL Wilson has described this as the major blunder of Sam Colt's professional life.[22] Rollin White left Colt's in December 1854 and registered a patent on April 3, 1855, in Hartford, Connecticut, as patent number 12,648: Improvement in Repeating Fire-arms.[21] On November 17, 1856, White signed an agreement with Smith & Wesson for the exclusive use of his patent. The contract stipulated that White would be paid 25 cents for every revolver, but that it was up to him to defend his patent against infringement as opposed to Smith & Wesson.[23]

During the 1850s and 1860s, Rollin White had been permanently trying to keep control on his breech-loading system patent, bringing a lawsuit to any breech-loaded manufactured gun. He nevertheless obtained an advance against royalties for using his patent from Smith & Wesson, a company that not only introduced its first revolver in 1857 (Smith & Wesson Model 1, a rear-loader) but also started, as of 1858, to convert cap & ball percussion guns into rear-loaders, even with formerly Colt manufactured revolvers.[24] But the Colt's company itself was prevented by American laws from infringing the Rollin White patent and all along the 1850s and 1860s continued manufacturing percussion guns. In 1860 it produced a new revolver model for the United States Army.[25] This Colt Army Model 1860 appeared just in time for the American Civil War.

1860–1865: American Civil War

Colt Navy (top) and Army Models from 1861 and 1860

The New York Daily Tribune denounced Colt and his company by asserting, “the traitors have found sympathizers among us, men base enough to sell arms when they knew they would be... in the hands of the deadly enemies of the Union... Col. Colt’s manufactory can turn probably 1,000 a week and has been doing so for the past four months for the South.”[26] This article even chided the Federal Government for not taking action against Colt: “Every man who makes arms should be watched, and if he will not work for a fair equivalent for the Government, his manufactory should be taken away from him.”[26] Despite secession and growing tensions between the North and the South, “Colt’s sales to Alabama, Virginia, Georgia, and Mississippi in 1860 alone were at least $61,000 (today’s equivalent of about 3.35 million).”[27] Until just days before the first shot at Fort Sumter, Colt received orders from various states, some participating in secession. In his memoir on Colt, written in 1866, Henry Barnard reported, “before the rebellion broke out, Col. Colt, foreseeing that his weapons must ere long be in double demand, had made all preparations to extend his factory.”[28]

The American Civil War was a boon to firearms manufacturers such as Colt's, and the company thrived during the conflict. Sam Colt had carefully developed contacts within the ordnance department, signing the very first government contract for 25,000 rifles. Colt's Factory was described as "an industrial palace topped by a blue dome", powered by a 250-horsepower steam engine.[19] During the American Civil War, Colt had 1,500 employees who produced 150,000 muskets and pistols a year. In 1861 and 1863, the company sold 107,000 of the Colt Army Model 1860 alone, with production reaching 200,500 by the end of the war in 1865.[29][30]

During the war, Colt's was still prevented by the American laws from infringing Rollin White's patent. Nevertheless, the war made a huge fortune for the company, allowing Sam Colt to become America's first manufacturing tycoon, though he did not live to see the end of the war; he died of rheumatic fever on January 10, 1862. His close friend and firearms engineer, Elisha K. Root, took over as Colt's company president. On February 4, 1864, a fire destroyed most of the factory, including arms, machinery, plans, and factory records.[31] On September 1, 1865, Root died, leaving the company in the hands of Samuel Colt's brother-in-law, Richard Jarvis.[32] The company's vice-president was William B. Franklin, who had recently left the Army at the end of the Civil War. With the Civil War over and having no new military contracts, Colt's Manufacturing was forced to lay off over 800 employees.[33]

The company found itself in a precarious situation. The original revolver patents had expired, allowing other companies to produce copies of his designs. Additionally, metallic cartridge revolvers were gaining in popularity, but Colt could not produce any because of the Rollin White patent held by rival Smith & Wesson. Likewise, Colt had been so protective of its own patents that other companies had been unable to make revolvers similar to their design. As the Rollin White patent neared expiration, Colt moved to develop its own metallic cartridge revolver.[34]

1865–1880s: Post–Civil War

It was 1868 when Colt's first effort toward a metallic cartridge revolver was by conversion of existing percussion revolvers. The first of these conversions was patented on September 15, 1868, by Colt engineer, F. Alexander Thuer as patent number 82258. The Thuer conversion was made by milling off the rear of the receiver and replacing it with a breechplate containing six internal firing pins. The cartridges were loaded through the mouths of the chambers. Colt made 5000 of these but they were not well accepted. Colt found the mechanism so complex it included a spare percussion cylinder with each revolver.[33]

Colt tasked its superintendent of engineering,

William Mason, improved this conversion by placing the rear sight on the hammer and, along with Richards, he was granted patents in 1871 to convert percussion revolvers into rear-loading metallic-cartridge revolvers. Those converted revolvers are identified as the "Richards-Mason conversion".[36] There were approximately 2100 Richards-Mason M1860 Army conversions made from 1877 to 1878 in a serial-number range 5800 to 7900.[36]

In November 1865, Franklin had attempted to purchase a license to the Rollin White patent from competitor Smith & Wesson. White and Smith & Wesson would take no less than $1.1 million, but Franklin and Colt's directors decided it was too large an investment on a patent that would expire in 1868.

Brooklyn, New York company known for manufacturing derringers and for circumventing the Rollin White patent by utilizing a unique cartridge.

Colt Deringers, at right 1st Model (1870–1890), at left 3rd Model (1875–1912), all .41 rimfire

Colt continued to produce the .41 Short derringer after the acquisition, as an effort to help break into the metallic-cartridge gun market, but also introduced its own three Colt Derringer Models, all of them also chambered in a .41 rimfire unique cartridge. The last model to be in production, the third Colt Derringer, was not dropped until 1912.[40]

The first metallic cartridge breech-loading weapons sold by Colt's were those Derringers, in 1870, that were formerly conceived by the National Arms Company, but Colt's also started developing its own rear-loading guns and cartridges.

In 1871, Colt's introduced its first revolver models using rear-loaded metallic cartridges: the .41 caliber

US Army for testing in 1872. The Army rejected the pistol and asked for a more powerful caliber with a stronger frame. Mason redesigned the frame to incorporate a topstrap, similar to the Remington revolvers, and placed the rear sight on the rear of the frame; he consulted with Richards on some other improvements. The first prototype of the new gun was still chambered in .44 rimfire, but the first model was in the newest caliber known as the .45 Colt
.

Colt Single Action Army, U.S. Artillery Model

The revolver was chosen by the Army in 1872, with the first order, for 8000 revolvers, shipping in the summer of 1873:

American West during the end of the 19th century and Colt still produces it, in six different calibers, two finishes and three barrel lengths.[45]

2nd Generation Colt Single Action Army

In the new market of metallic cartridge rear-loading pocket revolvers, Colt's not only introduced its three Derringer Models (as of 1870) or the Colt House and the Open Top Pocket (the last two as of 1871) but also introduced in 1873 a subsequent design called its "New Line" revolver models, based on William Mason's patents.[46]

After the success of the Colt Single Action Army and Colt's conversion of existing percussion revolvers to Richards-Mason conversions, Mason went on to design Colt's first

Double-action revolver, the Colt M1877. Following this, he once again teamed up with Richards to produce a larger-framed version, the Colt M1878 Frontier. It was Colt's first large-frame, double-action revolver. It combined the front end of the Single Action Army revolver with a double-action, 6-shot frame mechanism. It was available commercially in numerous calibers.[47]

The 1870s and 1880s provided sales opportunity to the Colt company via the spread of European-American society ever further westward across the continent, and the demand for firearms that it engendered in various ways. As white Americans displaced Indians from the

Old West
).

1890s

Colt finally left the "loading gate concept" for a swing-out cylinder on its revolvers with the

M1917 revolver) and .357 Magnum.[48]

Under a contract with the U.S. Army, Colt Arms built the Model 1895 ten-barrel variant of the

invasion of Guantánamo Bay and by the 1st Volunteer Infantry in the Santiago campaign during the Spanish–American War. In 1901, Elizabeth Jarvis Colt sold the company to a group of outside investors based in New York and Boston.[50]

20th century

1900–1920s

M1911 and M1911A1 pistols
Colt-Thompson Model 1921 with Type C drum magazine

During

M1917 revolver, as a substitute weapon. Competing manufacturer Smith & Wesson
made double-action revolvers in .45 ACP, which were accepted and issued by the U.S. military under the same name. Colt produced 151,700 revolvers during the war as well as 13,000 Maxim-Vickers machine guns and 10,000 Browning machine guns with an additional 100,000 under subcontract to other companies.

Since Auto-Ordnance had no tooling for production of the newly developed Thompson submachine gun, John T. Thompson, in August 1920, entered into contract with Colt's to manufacture 15,000 Thompson 1921 submachine guns. The contract was signed on August 18, 1920. Colt's tooled up and produced the 15,000 units between April 1921 and March 1922.

The

stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression resulted in a slowing down of production for Colt. In anticipation of this, company presidents William C. Skinner and Samuel M. Stone implemented a diversification program similar to that done at the close of the American Civil War. Colt acquired contracts for business machines, calculators, dishwashers, motorcycles, and automobiles; all marketed under a name other than Colt. Samuel Stone acquired a firm that manufactured plastics and renamed it "Colt rock" as well as a company that manufactured electrical products. Colt weathered the financial crises of the time by cutting the work week, reducing salaries, and keeping more employees on the payroll than they needed. These measures kept the company in business but ate up the cash surplus they had acquired during the World War I years.[10]

1930s: Great Depression

In 1935, after employees voted to disband a

labor union, 1,000 workers went on strike for 13 weeks. Strikers became violent, attacking workers and detonating a bomb in front of company president Samuel M. Stone's house. The company set up a barracks, dining room, and recreation room for workers within the Colt Armory during the strike. On June 3, 1935, the National Recovery Administration ruled that the company was within its rights not to deal with the union and the strike ended. In the year following the strike, the factory was hit by a hurricane and flood. Many company shipping records and historical documents were lost as a result.[51]

1939–1945: World War II

M1911A1

At the beginning of World War II, Colt ceased production of the Single Action Army revolver to devote more time to filling orders for the war. During the war Colt manufactured over 629,000 M1911A1 pistols as well as a large number of M1917 water-cooled machineguns.[52] The company had a workforce of 15,000 men and women in three factories and production ran on three shifts, 24 hours a day, and won the Army-Navy rating of "E" for excellence.[53] Colt ranked 99th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.[54] However, the company was losing money every year due to mismanagement, an embittered workforce that had been stretched to its limits, and manufacturing methods which were becoming obsolete.[10]

1945–1950s

As the war ended and demand for military arms came to a halt, production literally ceased. Many long-time workers and engineers retired from the company and nothing was built from 1945 to 1947. Mismanagement of funds during the war had a serious impact as the 105-year-old firm faced possible bankruptcy. In September 1955 the board of directors voted to merge Colt with an upstart conglomerate called Penn-Texas, which had acquired Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool the same year. Also in 1955, Colt released one of the most famous revolvers in history, the Colt Python. In 1958 Penn-Texas merged with Fairbanks-Morse to form the Fairbanks-Whitney Corporation and in 1964 the conglomerate reorganized as Colt Industries. In 1956 Colt resumed production of the Single Action Army revolver and in 1961 began making commemorative versions of their classic models.[10][55]

1960s–1970s

M16

The 1960s were boom years for Colt with the escalation of the

Beretta 92F being selected as the M9.[56]

In the early 1960s, Colt threatened legal action against Major League Baseball's new Houston franchise, the Colt .45s, citing trademark infringement. In December 1964 the team backed down, renaming itself the Astros.[57]

1980s–1990s

The 1980s were fairly good years for Colt, but the coming end of the Cold War would change all that. Colt had long left innovation in civilian firearms to their competitors, feeling that the handgun business could survive on their traditional revolver and M1911 designs. Instead, Colt focused on the military market, where they held the primary contracts for the production of rifles for the US military. This strategy dramatically failed for Colt through a series of events in the 1980s. In 1984, the U.S. military standardized on the

Beretta 92F. This was not much of a loss for Colt's current business, as M1911A1 production had stopped in 1945. Meanwhile, the military rifle business was growing because the U.S. military had a major demand for more upgraded M16s; the M16A2 model had just been adopted and the military needed hundreds of thousands of them.[56][58]

In 1985, Colt's workers, members of the

Fabrique Nationale. The strike finally ended when an agreement was reached on 22 March 1990.[60]

Some criticized Colt's range of handgun products in the late 1980s as out of touch with the demands of the market, and their once-vaunted reputation for quality had suffered during the UAW strike. Colt's stable of double-action revolvers and single-action pistols was seen as old-fashioned by a marketplace that was captivated by the new generation of "

Glock 17. Realizing that the future of the company was at stake, labor and management agreed to end the strike in an arrangement that resulted in Colt being sold to a group of private investors, the State of Connecticut, and the UAW itself.[61]

The new Colt first attempted to address some of the demands of the market with the production in 1989 of the Double Eagle, a double-action pistol heavily based on the M1911 design, which was seen as an attempt to "modernize" the classic Browning design. Colt followed this up in 1992 with the Colt All American 2000, which was unlike any other handgun Colt had produced before—being a polymer-framed, rotating-barrel, 9×19mm handgun with a magazine capacity of 15 rounds. It was designed by Reed Knight, with parts manufactured by outside vendors and assembled by Colt; its execution was disastrous. Early models were plagued with inaccuracy and unreliability and suffered from the poor publicity of a product recall. The product launch failed and production of the All American 2000 ended in 1994.[62][63] This series of events led to the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992.[64]

In 1992, the creditors, state and shareholders enlisted the aid of turnaround specialist RC (Ron) Whitaker to overcome the bankruptcy challenge. He developed a new team to address the company's situation. In addition to creating a positive working relationship with the UAW to introduce new techniques like cellular manufacturing, operator quality assurance and single-piece flow, they developed a renewed focus on product development. This resulted in the M4 carbine and Colt 22 pistol, two of the most successful new product offerings in the late 1990s, capturing 50% market shares in the first year of production.[citation needed]

M4 Carbine

The 1990s brought the end of

gun stores and US gun owners.[65]

Zilkha replaced Stewart with Steven Sliwa and focused the remainder of Colt's handgun design efforts into "smart guns," a concept favored politically, but that had little interest or support among handgun owners or police departments. This research never produced any meaningful results due to the limited technology at the time.[65] Colt announced the termination of its production of double-action revolvers in October 1999.[citation needed]

21st century

2002–present

The boycott of Colt gradually faded out after William M. Keys, a retired U.S. Marine Lt. General, took the helm of the company in 2002. Keys salvaged Colt's reputation and brought Colt from the brink of bankruptcy to an international leader in Defense production.[65] In 2010 Gerald R. Dinkel replaced Keys as CEO of Colt Defense LLC, while Keys remained on the board of directors for Colt Defense.[66]

Colt has to compete with other companies that make M1911-style pistols such as

Bushmaster. Bushmaster has subsequently overtaken Colt in the number of AR-15s sold on the civilian market. Colt suffered a legal defeat in court when it sued Bushmaster for trademark infringement claiming that "M4" was a trademark that it owned. The judge ruled that since the term M4 is a generic designation that Colt does not specifically own, Colt had to pay monetary reimbursement to Bushmaster to recoup Bushmaster's legal fees. The M4 designation itself comes from the U.S. military designation system, whose terms are in the public domain.[58]

Modified Sport Rifle

Colt has entered in several US contracts with mixed results. For example, Colt had an entry in the

XM8 since it was not an open competition. Current M16 rifles have been made primarily by FN USA since 1988. However, Colt remained the sole source for M4 carbines for the US military. Under their license agreement with Colt, the US military could not legally award second-source production contracts for the M4 until July 1, 2009.[58] In 2007 Colt won a contract to produce M4 carbines for the US military worth $71 million. In 2008 this was followed by a $151 million order for 89,000 M4 carbine rifles.[67]

In a 2002 restructuring, Colt's Manufacturing Company, Inc, spun off Colt Defense, LLC, to supply military, law enforcement and security markets.[68] Colt's Manufacturing Company itself become a subsidiary of New Colt Holding Corp, LLC. In 2013 Colt Defense acquired New Colt Holding Corp., in part to protect a licensing agreement set to expire in 2014, where Colt's Manufacturing sold sporting rifles marketed to consumers that were manufactured by Colt Defense.[1] This formed a single company to develop, manufacture and sell firearms under the Colt name for all markets for the first time since the 2003 completion of the restructuring.[69]

In 2013, Dennis R. Veilleux assumed the role of president & chief executive officer for Colt Holding Co. LLC and president & chief executive officer of Colt Defense LLC. Mr. Veilleux previously occupied the position of Principal at Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc., Principal at General Electric Co., president & chief executive officer at Colt's Manufacturing Co. LLC and president & chief executive officer at New Colt Holding Corp.

Following persistent reliability problems, the reunited Colt lost its contract with the US military for M4 rifles in 2013.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 15, 2015,[71] citing both assets and debts in the $100 million to $500 million range.[72] According to analysts, Colt's problems were due to the loss of the contract and low demand for its civilian handguns.[70] In January 2016, Colt announced that the bankruptcy court had approved its restructuring plan.[73]

After restructuring, a reinvigorated Colt introduced several new versions of its 1911 pistols, including stainless-steel competition and target models.[74] In 2017, Colt returned to the production of double-action revolvers with the .38 Colt Cobra, followed in 2019 by an improved version of the 1999 .357 Magnum Carry, the King Cobra. In 2020, Colt reintroduced a modernized Colt Python in stainless steel,[75] followed by the reintroduction of 6- and 8-inch stainless steel versions of the Colt Anaconda in 2021- and a 4.25-inch Anaconda in 2023.[76][77]

In 2021, Colt was purchased by the Česká zbrojovka Group (CZG), which would rename itself Colt CZ Group in 2022. Lubomír Kovařík, the chairman of the CZG, stated that the acquisition would allow for co-operative research and development between the two companies, and specified that Colt products would continue to be manufactured in the United States.[78]

Presidents

Samuel Colt

Archives

The company's factory collection was donated to the

Museum of Connecticut History in 1957.[85] At the same time, the company's business records were donated to the Connecticut State Library.[86]

Samuel Colt's personal firearm collection resides at the

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.[88]

Products

Handguns

The years in parentheses indicate the year when production started, not the year of the model's patent.

Percussion revolvers

Metallic cartridge revolvers

Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum

Semi-automatic pistols

Colt Mustang .380 ACP

Machine pistols

Long guns

M4 Carbine
  • Colt 1855 Revolving carbine/rifle
  • Colt 1878 Hammer Shotgun[89]
  • Colt-Burgess rifle
  • Colt–Browning M1895 machine gun
  • Colt Lightning Carbine
  • Colt Stagecoach
    .22 LR
    semi-automatic rifle
  • Colt ACR
  • Colt Double rifle
  • ArmaLite AR-15 type rifles
  • Colt Monitor
    – produced under license
  • Thompson SMG
    – produced under license

Cartridges

See also

References

  1. ^ a b GOSSELIN, KENNETH R. (July 23, 2013). "Colt Entities Together Again: Company Reunites Military, Civilian Gun Manufacturing - Hartford Courant". Hartford Courant. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  2. ^ "Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal". Reuters. February 12, 2021. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  3. ^ "Česká zbrojovka Group SE Announces Closing of the Acquisition of Colt" (Press release). Česká zbrojovka Group. May 24, 2021. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
  4. ^ "CZG - Česká zbrojovka Group Has Changed Its Name to Colt CZ Group SE" (Press release). Colt CZ Group. April 12, 2022. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  5. ^ Roe 1916, p. 166.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Hounshell 1984, p. 47.
  7. National Rifle Association of America National Firearms Museum. Archived from the original
    on March 7, 2016. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  8. ^ Castro, John (Spring 1979). "From the Beginning: Patent Arms Manufacturing Co., "Colts Patent"" (PDF). The American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin. 40. The American Society of Arms Collectors: 45–48. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 10, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  9. ^ a b Roe 1916, pp. 166–169.
  10. ^
    ISBN 978-1-57607-268-4
    .
  11. ^ a b c Roe 1916, pp. 164–185.
  12. ISBN 978-0-300-08007-0
    .
  13. ^ Houze (2006) p.83
  14. ^ Barnard, Henry (1866). Armsmear: The Home, the Arm, and the Armory of Samuel Colt: A Memorial. Vol. 53. Alvord Printer. p. 120.
  15. ^ a b c Hounshell 1984, pp. 15–65.
  16. ^ a b Haven, Charles Tower; Frank A. Belden (1940). A History of the Colt Revolver: And the Other Arms Made by Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company from 1836 to 1940. W. Morrow & company. p. 86.
  17. ^ Dickens, Charles (1854). "Guns and Pistols". Household Words. 4. Bradley and Evans: 583. Among the pistols, we saw Colt's revolver; and we compared it with the best English revolver. The advantage of Colt's over the English is, that the user can take a sight ; and the disadvantage is, that the weapon requires both hands to fire
  18. ISBN 9780070011588
    .
  19. ^ a b c d Kinard (2004) p.154
  20. ^ Lendler (1997) p. 17
  21. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8263-4280-5
    .
  22. ^ Boorman (2004) p.36
  23. ISBN 978-0-7385-4510-3
    .
  24. ^ There is a very well known scene, for example, in the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly where Blondie (played by Clint Eastwood) loads a breech-loading Colt 1851 Navy Revolver. The film is set in 1862, during the American Civil War, but this is not an anachronism since the Smith & Wesson metallic cartridge conversion of the Navy or other Colt revolvers did indeed exist all along the American Civil War.
  25. ^ Smith 1968.
  26. ^ a b Hosley, William N. Colt : The Making of an American Legend. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996. 96.
  27. ^ Hosley, William N. Colt : The Making of an American Legend. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996. 95.
  28. ^ Barnard, Henry. Armsmear: The Home, the Arm, and the Armory of Samuel Colt: A Memorial, New York: Alvord Printer, 1866. 213.
  29. ^ Flayderman 2007, p. 94
  30. ISBN 978-1-59555-359-1
    .
  31. ISBN 978-0-7627-3972-1
    .
  32. ISBN 978-0-300-11133-0
    .
  33. ^ a b Kinard (2004) p.124
  34. ^
    ISBN 978-1-85367-692-5
    .
  35. ^ Sapp 2007, p. 54
  36. ^ a b Sapp 2007, p. 55
  37. ^ Houze (2006) p.6
  38. ISBN 978-0-19-507198-6
    .
  39. James Daniel Richardson (ed.). A compilation of the messages and papers of the presidents, prepared under the Joint Committee on Printing of the House and Senate, pursuant to an act of the Fifty-second Congress of the United States (with additions and encyclopedic index by private enterprise). Vol. 9. Bureau of National Literature. pp. 4034–4035. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  40. ^ The third Colt Deringer Model was re-released in the 1950s for western movies, under the name of fourth model Colt Deringer
  41. ^ Flayderman 2007, p. 103
  42. ^ Flayderman 2007, p. 105
  43. ^ Flayderman 2007
  44. ^ "Antique Arms, Inc. - Colt Model 1871-1872 Open Top Revolver". www.antiquearmsinc.com.
  45. ^
    ISBN 978-0-87349-953-8
    .
  46. ^ Sapp 2007, pp. 59–60, 64
  47. ISBN 978-1-85109-470-7
    .
  48. ^ Sapp 2007, pp. 96–97
  49. ^ Parker 1898, pp. 131–138.
  50. ISBN 978-1-55862-327-9
    .
  51. ^ Lendler (1997) pp. 18–19
  52. ISBN 978-1-84908-433-8
    .
  53. ^ Sapp 2007, pp. 48–49
  54. ^ Peck, Merton J. & Scherer, Frederic M. The Weapons Acquisition Process: An Economic Analysis (1962) Harvard Business School p.619
  55. ^
    ISBN 978-0-917218-17-0
    .
  56. ^
    ISBN 978-0-89689-525-6
    .
  57. ^ It is often claimed that the team changed its name to match its new stadium, the Astrodome, but the reverse is the case; the Harris County Domed Stadium was renamed to match the team.
  58. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84908-690-5
    .
  59. ^ Lendler (1997) pp. 25–27
  60. ^ Lendler (1997) pp. 21–22
  61. ISBN 978-0-8103-8998-4
    .
  62. ^ Hopkins, Cameron (2001). "Kimber Ultra Ten II". American Handgunner. Archived from the original on December 5, 2004. Retrieved February 26, 2007. Some have been design breakthroughs,...while others have been utterly uninspiring, like the defunct Colt All-American 2000.
  63. ^ "Colt's renames Cadet pistol - Colt's Manufacturing Company Inc.'s Colt .22 Single Action pistol". Shooting Industry. 1994. Archived from the original on November 13, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2007. The gun was selling at the rate of 10–12,000 units per year, and for a manufacturer of our size, with 900 employees, it was not enough
  64. ^ "The legend lives on - Colt files for bankruptcy". Shooting Industry. 1992. Archived from the original on November 13, 2007. Retrieved February 26, 2007.
  65. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7432-1561-9
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  66. ^ "Colt Defense LLC Announces Gerald R. Dinkel as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company". Business Wire. 2010. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
  67. ^ "Colt Defense wins major contract".
  68. ^ "Colt Defense, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Mar 26, 2013" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
  69. ^ "Colt's Manufacturing LLC". www.colt.com.
  70. ^ a b Siegel, Jacob (June 17, 2015). "Dropped by the U.S. Military, Colt Goes Bankrupt". The Daily Beast.
  71. ^ Jarzemsky, Matt (June 15, 2015). "Colt Defense Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection". The Wall Street Journal.
  72. ^ "Colt files for bankruptcy, seeks August auction". MarketWatch. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  73. ^ Smith, Aaron. "Colt gunmaker emerges from bankruptcy". CNN Money. Retrieved December 2, 2017.
  74. ^ Riehl, F (November 2, 2016). "Colt Announces Stainless Steel Competition 1911 Pistol Models". Ammoland.com. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  75. ^ Eger, Chris. "Colt Python Reboot for 2020 Goes The Distance At Shot Show". Guns.com. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  76. ^ MBA, Robert Allen Scepaniak II (January 18, 2023). "COLT Anaconda 4.25" Barrel Stainless Steel .44 Magnum Revolver!". Firearm Headlines. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
  77. ^ "New for 2021: Colt Anaconda". American Rifleman. Archived from the original on July 30, 2021.
  78. ^ "CZ BUYS COLT: An Exclusive Interview With Lubomír Kovařík – President CZG". The Firearm Blog. February 15, 2021. Archived from the original on February 16, 2021.
  79. ^ Hevesi, Dennis (December 19, 2008). "David Margolis, Industrialist and Aide to Mayor Koch, Dies at 78". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
  80. ^ "BUSINESS PEOPLE ; Colt Chief to Move Into 3d Key Post". The New York Times. December 13, 1984 – via NYTimes.com.
  81. ^ McQuiston, John T. (March 23, 1990). "Colt Unit Sold; Connecticut Among Buyers". The New York Times.
  82. ^ "Gamble Quits as Colt's Chief". The New York Times. October 4, 1990.
  83. ^ Bryant, Adam (May 15, 1992). "COMPANY NEWS; Colt's New Chief Likes to Fix Businesses". The New York Times.
  84. ^ "Dennis R. Veilleux: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg Businessweek. August 2023.
  85. ^ "Colt Collection". Museum of Connecticut History. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  86. ^ "Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company". Connecticut State Library. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  87. ^ "Colt Firearms Collection". Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  88. ^ "Jarvis-Robinson Family Papers". Yale. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  89. ^ "Colt 1878 Hammer Shotgun". coltparts.com. Archived from the original on August 27, 2015. Retrieved September 17, 2014.

Bibliography

External links
Historic American Engineering Record
(HAER) documentation

Most of the following are filed under 36-150 Huyshope Avenue, 17-170 Van Dyke Avenue, 49 Vredendale Avenue, Hartford, Hartford County, CT:

41°44′19″N 72°43′23″W / 41.7385145°N 72.722959°W / 41.7385145; -72.722959

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