His father was a small manufacturer of silk and woolens
at Hartford, and the boy entered the factory at a very early age.
At school in Amherst a little later, he fell under the
displeasure of his teachers. At thirteen he took to sea, as a boy
before the mast, on the East India voyage to Calcutta. It was on
this voyage that he conceived the idea of the revolver and
whittled out a wooden model. On his return he went into his
father's works and gained a superficial knowledge of chemistry
from the manager of the bleaching and dyeing department. Then he
took to the road for three years and traveled from Quebec to New
Orleans lecturing on chemistry under the name of "Dr. Coult." The
main feature of his lecture was the administration of nitrous
oxide gas to volunteers from the audience, whose antics and the
amusing showman's patter made the entertainment very popular.
Colt's ambition, however, soared beyond the occupation of
itinerant showman, and he never forgot his revolver. As soon as
he had money enough, he made models of the new arm and took out
his patents; and, having enlisted the interest of capital, he set
up the Patent Arms Company at Paterson, New Jersey, to
manufacture the revolver. He did not succeed in having the
revolver adopted by the Government, for the army officers for a
long time objected to the percussion cap (an invention, by the
way, then some twenty years old, which was just coming into use
and without which Colt's revolver would not have been
practicable) and thought that the new weapon might fail in an
emergency.
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