Samuel Colt

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1814, he showed an early fascination with machinery and explosives. A voyage at sea as a teenager is often linked to the idea that led him to develop a revolving-cylinder handgun, and he went on to secure patents for his design in the 1830s.

After early business setbacks, he rebuilt his fortunes by improving both the revolver and the way it was made. Through what became Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company, he helped make large-scale production of revolvers commercially successful and became known not just as an inventor, but also as a shrewd manufacturer and promoter.

He died in Hartford in 1862, but his name remained closely tied to the rise of American industrial production. Today he is remembered as an inventor and businessman whose work left a lasting mark on firearms technology, factory methods, and 19th-century manufacturing.