Samuel Colt

Samuel Colt was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who founded Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company and began the mass production of commercially viable revolvers.

In his early days, Colt's ambitious inventions were met with failure, including a pistol and underwater mines that didn't work and nearly crippled him financially. However, in 1836 his business would rapidly improve.

Colt's new 5-shooter "revolving gun" was granted its first patent on February 25, 1836 (later numbered 9430x). Later on the gun was re-patented with the number 1304, dated August 29, 1836, and protected the basic principles of his revolving breech-loading, folding trigger firearm named the Colt Paterson. 

Years later, in 1847, after several remodels and innovations the Colt Revolver caught the eye of Captain Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers. Walker had acquired some of the first Colt revolvers produced during the Seminole War and saw first-hand their effective use as 15-man unit defeated a larger force of 70 Commanches in Texas.

Walker wanted to order Colts for use by the Rangers in the Mexican-American War, so he traveled to New York City in search of Colt. He met Colt in a gunsmith's shop on January 4, 1847 and ordered 1,000 revolvers, but on certain terms.

Walker wanted the new revolvers to hold 6 shots instead of 5, have enough power to kill either a human or a horse with a single shot, and be quicker to reload. Colt obliged his requests and invented the first 6-shooter ever.