The Wild West is known for its cowboys and gunslingers. In the Wild West the pistol
was an important piece of equipment. Samuel Colt played an important part in the Wild West
because of the invention of the Colt Revolver.
Samuel Colt was born on July 19, 1814 in Hartford, Connecticut. He was one of
eight children. As a young boy Samuel Colt’s principle interest was guns and machinery. His
father, Christopher Colt, was a textile manufacturer and was married to Sarah Coldwell Colt
(“Samuel Colt”). Samuel Colt’s parents lived there in Hartford until their death.
Sam Colt at the age of 16 attended the Amherst Academy in Massachusetts and was
eventually expelled from it for his behavior. After he was expelled from the Amherst Academy
Colt’s father sent him to sail on a ship. The ship was called the Corvo (“Samuel Colt”).
While Sam Colt was on the Corvo he came up with the idea of a revolving cylinder for a
pistol. He got it from watching the wheel and that the spokes came back in line with the wheel.
When Colt got back to land he went to a man named Mr. Anson Chase who was a gunsmith
(Haven 14). After they came up with the idea they made their first revolver. It was a four barrel
cluster revolver. The only problem was that the revolver blew up when they shot it. The reason
why it blew up was there were no partitions between the nipples to prevent one discharge from
making all the rest explode. That was Sam Colt’s first gun design he made (Peterson 209).
Samuel Colt’s first invention that worked was an underwater mine. He made a galvanic
battery that made it detonate underwater. Sam Colt got a bunch of business men and made a
demonstration for them. He stuck a raft out in a stream over the mine he stuc...
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Colt’s most famous pistol that he made was the .45-calibre peacemaker introduced
in1873. Colt made a lot of pistols in his lifetime. Colt will always be remembered for his
revolvers and how he changed the wild west and the way we fight to this day.
Works Cited
Haven, Charles T. and Frank A. Belben. A History of the Colt Revolver. New York: Bonanza
Books, 1978. Print.
Peterson, Harold L. The Treasury of the Gun. New York: Golden Press, 1962. Print.
“Samuel Colt”. The Biography Channel Website. (2013). Web. 8 Nov. 2013.
Schreiner, Philip. “Former Texas Ranger Samuel Walker Collaborated with Samuel Colt on a
Powerful New Revolver.” Wild West 13.2 (2000): 10. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 8 Nov.
2013.
Silva, Lee A. “Sam Colt’s Big Business Was a Boon to Other Gunmakers.” Wild West 25.5
(2013): 68. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
The West is a very big part of American culture, and while the myth of the West is much more enticing than the reality of the west, it is no doubt a very big part of America. We’re constantly growing up playing games surrounded by the West such as cowboys and Indians and we’re watching movies that depict the cowboy to be a romanticized hero who constantly saves dames in saloons and rides off into the sunset. However, the characters of the West weren’t the only things that helped the development of America; many inventions were a part of the development of the West and helped it flourish into a thriving community. Barbed wire, the McCormick reaper and railroads—for example—were a large part of the development in the West—from helping to define claimed land boundaries, agricultural development and competition, and even growth of the West.
He gives a lengthy account of events that led to the Second Amendment; the people carried a deep-seated fear of a national army, this is because of their history of oppression by the European monarchs. Consequently, the people of the individual states were creating their own militia and during the Valley Forge men had refused to take an oath to the United States, instead claiming that his state was his country. There arose a need for a national army. “The same First Congress that approved the right to keep and bear arms also limited the nation army to 840 men; Congress in the Second Amendment then
optometry school even after the war. He was in that school before the war and the war
In response to a request by a patron, a search of the copyright status for the book Texas Guns by Paul Lehman was conducted. This report discusses the steps taken and the information that was found during that investigation.
Cornell, Saul. A Well-regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.
The Taming of the West: Age of the Gunfighter: Men and Weapons of the Frontier 1840-1900.
Somewhere out in the Old West wind kicks up dust off a lone road through a lawless town, a road once dominated by men with gun belts attached at the hip, boots upon their feet and spurs that clanged as they traversed the dusty road. The gunslinger hero, a man with a violent past and present, a man who eventually would succumb to the progress of the frontier, he is the embodiment of the values of freedom and the land the he defends with his gun. Inseparable is the iconography of the West in the imagination of Americans, the figure of the gunslinger is part of this iconography, his law was through the gun and his boots with spurs signaled his arrival, commanding order by way of violent intentions. The Western also had other iconic figures that populated the Old West, the lawman, in contrast to the gunslinger, had a different weapon to yield, the law. In the frontier, his belief in law and order as well as knowledge and education, brought civility to the untamed frontier. The Western was and still is the “essential American film genre, the cornerstone of American identity.” (Holtz p. 111) There is a strong link between America’s past and the Western film genre, documenting and reflecting the nations changes through conflict in the construction of an expanding nation. Taking the genres classical conventions, such as the gunslinger, and interpret them into the ideology of America. Thus The Western’s classical gunslinger, the personification of America’s violent past to protect the freedoms of a nation, the Modernist takes the familiar convention and buries him to signify that societies attitude has change towards the use of diplomacy, by way of outmoding the gunslinger in favor of the lawman, taming the frontier with civility.
Lee, Robert W. "Gun Report: The Buford Furrow Tragedy." The New American 15 (1999): 33
When one thinks of the United States of America, they probably consider our history, our culture, our media, our impressive cities and the extremely wide variety of beautiful wildernesses that we are lucky enough to still enjoy. We are lucky enough to have a melting pot of cultures in this country, and many different kinds of people. However, when thinking of an original, all-American figure, cowboys come to mind for many people. Our history and the settlement of the U.S. was unlike any other country, and the development of the country in the more western states came with the unique and fascinating time period referred to now as “The Old West”. The Old West was a crucial time in American history, and though it was a simpler time it also came with its share of excitement. Some of the most memorable details about the Old West were the characters that came with it, and some extremely interesting ones were the least conforming- the outlaws. Jesse Woodson James was one of the most notorious outlaws in American history. His name would go down in history as one belonging to a tough as nails and fearless bank robber who led a group of outlaws across the mid-west robbing banks and trains, and even murdering people. When we look at the big picture of what the U.S. has become today, The Old West certainly has had a large impact on our culture, and Jesse James certainly had a large impact on the Old West. Though most would argue that he was not a decent or moral person, one cannot argue that he was still a very interesting and unique icon of the west. So how did Jesse Woodson James change and leave his mark on the United St...
Samuel was unhappy with farming and storekeeping, so he ran away from home to live with the Cherokees on Hiwasee Island in the Tennessee River near present-day Dayton, Tennessee. At the age of seventeen, Sam returned to his family for a short period of time and then returned back to the Cherokees where, he was adopted by Chief Oo-Loo-Te-Ka and given the Indian name, "The Raven." Two years later, Sam returned to Maryville, Tennessee, where he opened a successful private school. On his twentieth birthday, Sam Houston enlisted in the regular army as a private. Within the year, he was promoted to Third Lieutenant to the 39th Infantry Regiment where Houston was badly wounded twice at The Battle of Horseshoe Bend during the War of 1812. The battle took place on the Tallapoosa River near present-day Alexander City, Alabama.
gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back
Gun. N.d. Photograph. Chicago Mag. Chicago Tribune, 1 Aug. 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. .
Actually that came from another characteristic of a western, the conflict between settlers and Indians, after being raised with the Indians for three years he had killed several settlers. Then after he had left the Indians side to join the white mans army he killed many more Indians, that's how he had crafted his skills as a gunman and survivalist. It even is shown in the story that he has been killing for years, when he kills the first two Indians, he has a fast and accurate shooting style. Also he has the background to know were others may be hiding such as in a bush, or
'This radical discrepancy between the sense of eroding masculinity and the view of America as a great history of men against the wilderness has created the need for a means of symbolic expression of masculine potency in an unmistakable way. This means is the gun, particularly the six-gun'; (Crane 299).