manufacturing company llc type private industry arms industry founded 1855 ; 161 years ago 1855 founder samuel colt headquarters hartford connecticut united states products firearms weapons revenue owner zilkha & co. 85 % and others number of employees c. 5 2004 website www.colt.com for other uses see colt . colt s manufacturing company cmc formerly colt s patent firearms manufacturing company is an american firearms manufacturer founded in 1855 by samuel colt . it is the successor corporation to colt s earlier firearms making efforts since 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 earlier single shot pistols . although samuel colt did not invent the revolver concept his designs resulted in the first very successful ones . the most famous colt products include the colt walker made 1847 in the facilities of eli whitney jr. the single action army or peacemaker the colt python and the colt m1911 pistol which is currently the longest standing military and law enforcement service handgun in the world and is still used today . though they did not develop it for a long time colt was also primarily responsible for all ar 15 and m16 rifle production as well as many derivatives of those firearms . the most successful and famous of these are numerous m16 carbines including the colt commando family and the m4 carbine . in 2002 colt defense was split off from colt s manufacturing company . colt s manufacturing company now serves the civilian market while colt defense serves the law enforcement military and private security markets worldwide . the two companies remained in the same west hartford ct location however even cross licensing certain merchandise before reuniting in 2013 . 1 colt filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on june 15 2015 . contents 1 history 1.1 19th century 1.1.1 1830s 1850s 1.1.2 1860 1865 american civil war 1.1.3 1865 1880s post civil war 1.1.4 1890s 1.2 20th century 1.2.1 1900 1920s 1.2.2 1930s great depression 1.2.3 1939 1945 world war ii 1.2.4 1945 1950s 1.2.5 1960s 1970s 1.2.6 1980s 1990s 1.3 21st century 1.3.1 2002 present 2 colt presidents 3 handguns 3.1 percussion revolvers 3.2 metallic cartridge revolvers 3.3 semi automatic pistols 3.4 machine pistols 4 long guns 5 cartridges 6 see also 7 references 8 bibliography 9 external links history edit 19th century edit 1830s 1850s edit colt model of 1848 holster pistol first model dragoon samuel colt received a british patent on his improved design for a revolver in 1835 2 and two u.s. patents in 1836 one on february 25 later numbered u.s. patent 9430x and another on august 29 u.s. patent 1 304 . that same year he founded his first corporation for its manufacture the patent arms manufacturing company of paterson new jersey colt s patent . 3 the first firearm manufactured at the new paterson plant however was the colt first model ring lever rifle beginning in 1837 . this was followed shortly thereafter in late 1837 by the introduction of the colt paterson . 4 5 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 . 3 6 production had ended at the new jersey corporation by 1842 . 3 colt made another attempt at revolver production in 1846 and submitted a prototype to the us government . during the mexican american war 1846 1848 this prototype was seen by captain samuel hamilton walker who made some suggestions to colt about making it in a larger caliber . having no factory or machinery to produce the pistols samuel colt collaborated with the whitney armory of whitneyville connecticut . 3 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 . 7 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 . 6 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 fire arms manufacturing company in hartford connecticut . 3 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 . 3 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 in pottsdam . 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 assembly line practice . it was a major innovator and training ground in manufacturing technology in this decade and several after . 8 soon after establishing his hartford factory colt set out to establish a factory in europe and chose london england . he organized a large display of his firearms at the 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 . 9 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 institute of civil engineers in london . 10 the membership rewarded his efforts by awarding him the telford gold medal . 11 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 . 12 colt opened his london plant on the river thames at pimlico and began production on january 1 1853 . 13 many english people saw colt s advanced steampowered machinery as proof of america s growing position as a leader in modern industrial production . 13 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 . 14 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 . 15 in 1854 the british admiralty ordered 4 000 navy model colt revolvers . 16 in 1855 the british army placed an order for 5 000 of these revolvers for army issue . 16 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 . 16 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 . 12 though the u.s. was not directly involved in the crimean war 1854 1856 colt s weapons were used by both sides . in 1855 colt unveiled new state of the art armories in the hartford and london factories stocked with the latest machine tools some of which were of colt s devising many built by francis a. pratt and amos whitney who would found the original pratt & whitney toolbuilding firm a few years later . for example the lincoln miller debuted to industry at these armories . 8 colt had set up libraries and educational programs within the plants for his employees . 17 colt s armories in hartford were seminal training grounds for several generations of toolmakers and other machinists who had great influence in other manufacturing efforts of the next half century . 8 12 prominent examples included f. pratt and a. whitney as mentioned above ; henry leland who would end up at cadillac and lincoln ; edward bullard sr of the bullard firm ; and through pratt & whitney 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 . 18 colt historian rl wilson has described this as the major blunder of sam colt s professional life . 19 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 . 18 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 . 20 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 . 21 but the colt s company itself was prevented by american laws from infringing the rollin white patent and all along the 1850s and 1860s