Talk:Samuel Colt

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Contents 1 Suggestions 2 Colt revolver revolutionary? 3 Patent numbers: 138 v. 9430X? 4 Cleanup Tag 5 Supernatural 6 Cleanup + sourcing issues

[edit] Suggestions

This was the first wikipedia article I ever wrote/edited and I was hoping to get some feedback on what I should do differently in the future, so any comments on the article are appreciated. ~jk

[edit] Colt revolver revolutionary?

Colt wasn't as "revolutionary" as he's commonly credited with being. Revolving firearms existed as far back as the 15h Century. And in the 1830s, Adams & Trantor made a similar weapon in Britain. Gun Digest has an annual paperback edition (what year, I can't recall) that mentions both. Trekphiler 12:20, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Indeed the puckle (not sure of spelling?) gun was around (in London) during Colts time. - maybe this was more 'inspiration' than a capstan?

That's correct, but the Puckle Gun was a tripod-mounted weapon that could only fire nine rounds per minute. Colt's invention was revolutionary in part because it gave any person, almost regardless of physical ability, the ability to practicably defend from an enemy. [[User::Spock]] 11:21, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

This is a well written article. Jcmiller 04:14, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Colt's real claim to fame is the influence he had on automation, both in the firearms industry and automated industrialisation as we know it today. He employed people who were forward thinkers of automation and demonstrated that real automation brought enormous cost benefits.

[edit] Patent numbers: 138 v. 9430X?

According to the United States Patent Office's database, #138 was issued in 1837 to a "B. Gillespie", and had something to do with ice -- not at all the patent this article was talking about. The Feb 25, 1836 patent issued to S. Colt is 9430X -- but the scan of the patent shows that typewritten onto the original document, as if the patent was re-numbered at some point.

I took the patent number out of the article text and provided a footnote with citation and current patent number, but does anyone know what the full story is? It'd be nice to include explanatory info in the footnote, especially since "#138" is quoted all over the web. Sanguinity 21:45, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Hah. I should have done more research. They're called X-Patents. It would seem that patents weren't numbered until 1837, at which point they began retroactively numbering all pre-1837 patents.

This still doesn't explain why that "138" number is so common out there, but I'm feeling less like there's a discrepancy that needs to be explained in the article footnotes. Sanguinity 22:05, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

I have found an entry from one other author who suggests that many patent documents during this period were destroyed. Regarding Patent No. 138, according to Serven and Metzger Patent No. 138 was an "instrument, that was further supported by Patent No. 1304, dated 29 August 1839. The link to U.S.P.T.O, brings you to a search page. I have re-cited the artice; Serven and Metzger (1946) detailed study of Colt and his respective firearms is a very impressive work, as is thier cartridge publication of (1956). Many of the answeres to your query's can be found within the four volumes, or in a reprint of them. Jediforce 04:43, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

I think Serven made an error on the patent numbers, then.

The citation you removed is the US Patent Office Database -- there's no way to link directly to an individual patent there, which is the reason I cited the database and included information in the footnote about how to see the patent itself. Take a look at #138 -- it isn't issued to Colt, it has nothing to do with guns, and it was issued in the wrong year. Then take a look at X9430: for a revolver, issued to S. Colt on Feb. 25, 1836. (For both of those, you have to enter the number of the patent you want to see, then click the option to see images -- there are no transcriptions, but they have scans of the original documents.)

The link I gave above -- X-Patent -- discusses the patents that were destroyed. Prior to 1837 (and the fire that destroyed the patent office's copies of those first patents) patents weren't numbered. After the fire, in 1837, the Patent Office started numbering all new patents, beginning at 1. They also started trying to recover extant copies of old patents, and numbering them as they found them, but beginning with X1. So pre-fire (1836 and earlier) patents are X-series, post-fire patents don't have the X. The patent Colt was issued in 1836 was an X-series patent, because it was issued before the fire. Anything without an 'X' can't be the right patent number for that date.

When sources conflict, we need to go with the primary sources above secondary sources. And the actual scans maintained by the Patent Office are about as primary as we can get on this issue. Sanguinity 07:21, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup Tag

I've added a cleanup tag to the top of this page and added it to the list at WP:CU. It seems to me that this page is not structured according to wiki guidelines and that it's not very clear to people who aren't familiar with the subject. 70.170.27.119 17:07, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Just a note that the photo of the "Nitrous Oxide Gas" exhibition poster involving one Dr. S. Coult (spelled with a "u") seems to have no explainable presence in this article! Is it a prankster's act?

I've removed it. --Lendorien 17:34, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Supernatural

I realize that this is a pretty low importance edit, but the term used on the show Supernatural was a "devil trap" not a "demon trap". I can't make the edit as I am not a registered user, but I figured someone would want to correct the error. 71.192.54.222 (talk) 20:10, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Hello? 71.192.54.222 (talk) 06:11, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Fixed. --Lendorien (talk) 13:55, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup + sourcing issues

I read over this article. Parts of it need to be rewritten for tone. It's written sort of like a children's biography rather than a encyclopedia article... the early life section especially. It also needs sourcing. There is a lot of unsouced claims int his article that need to be resolved.--Lendorien (talk) 13:55, 23 April 2008 (UTC)