COLT, kali, SAMUEL ( 1814-62 ) . An American manufacturer. inventor of the revolver. He was born in Hartford, Conn.. where he worked in his father's factory. Obtaining a knowledge of chem istry, he lectured on that subject in the ITnited States and Canada, and in 1835 secured patents or a revolving pistol, a wooden model of which he had made while at sea when a boy. In the same year the Patent Arms Company was formed for the manufacture of his invention, but because insolvent in 1842 through insufficient demand for its product. In 1847 Colt contracted to make 100(1 weapons for General Taylor, and the im provement of the revolver, together with the in creased demand for it, set the business on a stable footing. while new improvements were constantly made in the weapon. In 1852 he built a large armory in Hartford, where, besides firearms, machinery is made for their manufac ture in other places, notably at the English and the Russian arsenals. He invented a battery for submarine harbor defense, and in 1843 laid and successfully tested in New York Harbor the first submarine telegraph cable. His line was insu
lated with a combination of cotton yarn, bees wax, and asphaltum. incased in a lead pipe. gutta-percha not then having been discovered.
COLTON, 1:61"ton, WALTER ( 1797-18511. An American writer. He was born in Rutland, Vt.. graduated at Yale and Andover, and for several years was professor of moral philosophy and belles-lettres in the Aliddlelown (Connecticut) Academy. In 1831 he became chaplain in the navy. He was made alealde of Monterey. Cal.. in 1S45. and founded the Californian, the first newspaper published in that State. Ile also built the first school-house and made the first an nouncement of the discovery of gold. Colton edited newspapers in Washington, Charlestown, linqs., and Philadelphia, and published ,Chip and Shore in Madeira, Lisbon, and the Mediterranean (18:35); A Visit to Athens and Constantinople (1836) ; Three Years in California (1850) ; and Deck and Port (1850) , besides other lively stories of travel and the sea.