The patent, filed in 1836, was the beginning of an era. Samuel Colt himself is a prime example of many things "American."" First, Colt gave himself the most important real estate quality: Location, location, location. He opened his first plant in Paterson, Nj, one of the nation's fastest budding industrial centers. His company was further aided when another gun manufacturer (Patent Arms Manufacturing Co.) went bankrupt. Colt took advantage of another man's misfortune by buying factory equipment at a governmentauction and proceeded to create such novelties as waterproof ammunition and underwater mines for sale to the U.S. Government. In 1851, Colt became the first American manufacturer to open a plant in England. By doing this, he was able to attain a firm stance in international markets. Sam Colt was later !.
recognized as one of the first American manufacturers to realize fully the potential of an effective marketing program that included sales promotion, publicity, product sampling, advertising, and public relations. (http://www.colt.com/colt/html/i1a_historyofcolt.html).
A Texas journalist once recounted a story of a judge back in the day being confronted with a Bowie knife-wielding frontiersman. The man stood up and said to the judge, "This is how we keep order in these parts."".
"Not any more,"" the judge replied, "Now this is the law,"" and gaveled down his ruling on the skull of the hoodlum with the butt of his Colt revolver (Patton, 50). The United States has an uncanny love for the gun. It won and kept freedom in 1776, and 1812. It fended of the Mexicans in the war that made the Colt famous. It helped maintain the USA during the Civil War. And it kept the Native Americans at bay for good portion of the late nineteenth century. It made Wild West wild and left a brand mark on the United States: Colt. "Walter Prescott Webb has shown that the ax, boat, and the rifle were absolute necessities east of the 98th meridian "but the rifle became less important west of that line.
