Colt's Manufacturing Company

Colt's Manufacturing Company
Type Private
Industry Defense
Founded 1836
Founder(s) Sam Colt
Headquarters Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Products Firearms, weapons
Revenue increase
Employees ~ (2004)
Website www.coltsmfg.com

Colt's Manufacturing Company (CMC, formerly Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company) is a United States firearms manufacturer founded in 1847. It is best known for the engineering, production, and marketing of dozens of different firearms over the later half of the 19th and the 20th century. It has made many civilian and military designs used in the United States, as well was many other countries.

Contents

Among the most famous products from Colt are the Walker Colt used by the United States Mounted Rifles in the Mexican-American War and the "Colt .45" revolver, the proper name of which was the Single Action Army or Peacemaker. Later well-known CMC revolvers include the Colt Python and Colt Anaconda. John Browning also worked for Colt for a time, and came up with now ubiquitous parallel slide type of design for a pistol, which debuted on the Colt M1900 pistol, leading to numerous pistol designs including the famous Colt M1911 pistol. Though they did not develop it, Colt was responsible for M16 production for a long time, as well as many derivative firearms related to it. The most successful and famous of these are numerous M16 carbines, including the Colt Commando family, and the M4 carbine.

Colt also developed many important less known firearms that were often ahead of their time. Among the most recent was the CAR-15 family - an innovative weapon system family of the 1960s, as well as a number of 5.56 mm machine guns such as the Colt CMG-1, CMG-2 in the 60s in the 70s. They also invented the Colt SCAMP PDW, a little known firearm of the late 1970s that was among the first of its type. Colt's produced also the first 15 000 Thompson Submachineguns Mod 1921. Another important design was the lesser-known Colt-Browning Model 1895 (Potato Digger) - one of the first gas-actuated machine guns. Going back even farther reveals other important products of the 19th century. The Colt Revolver Rifle, one of the first repeating rifles, and used during the American Civil War. In addition to this were a large number of famous revolvers, such as the 1847 Colt Walker, the smaller Dragoon Mod. 1848 of the same caliber .44, the Navy Mod. 1851 cal .36, the Pocket Mod. 1849 cal .31 and numerous other famous revolvers of the 'Wild West'. His designs played a major role in the popularization of the revolver and the shift away from earlier single pistols and pepperbox type weapons. While Colt did not invent the revolver concept, his designs resulted in the first very successful ones with patents on many of the features that lead to them being so popular.

In 2002, Colt Defense was split off from Colt's Manufacturing Company. Colt Manufacturing Company now serves the civilian market, while Colt Defense serves the law enforcement, military, and private security markets worldwide. Prior to the split Colt was also well known for their production (now taken over by Colt Defense) of the M1911 semi-automatic pistols, M4 carbines, M16 assault rifles, and M203 grenade launchers, although none of these were Colt designs, excepting the M1911 . Diemaco of Canada was also purchased, and renamed Colt Canada, though most of its products remain the same. Diemaco and Colt had earlier worked together on designs and shared many similar products.

History

1836–1911

CMC was founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1836 by Samuel Colt in order to produce revolvers, of which Colt held the patent, during the Mexican-American War.[1] Colt's earlier venture, the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company, had declared bankruptcy in 1842 and was no longer producing firearms, but the efficiency of the Colt Paterson revolver design had become apparent to the Texas Rangers, and they placed an order for 1,000 larger revolvers that became known as the Walker Colt, ensuring Colt's re-entry into manufacturing revolvers. Later, the U.S. Army also sought out the young entrepreneur to produce even more revolvers.[2]

Colt's early history largely revolved around the production of revolvers, developed out of Sam Colt's original 1834 invention of the revolver.[2] Colt is perhaps best known for the famous "Colt .45", a name which actually refers to four separate historically significant firearms. The first of these is the aforementioned 1873 Single Action Army, of which Colt was the original producer, and which was one of the most prevalent firearms in the American West during the end of the 19th century. Colt still produces this firearm, in six different calibers, two finishes and three barrel lengths. (Original, good condition first generation Single Action Armies, those produced between 1873 and 1941, are among the most valuable to the collector. Especially valuable, often going for well over $10,000, are the Orville W. Ainsworth and the Henry Nettleton inspected U.S. Cavalry Single Action Army Colts.

The second was the Colt Model of 1878. It was Colt's first large frame double action revolver. It combined the front end of the Single Action Army revolver with a double action 6 shot frame mechanism. It was available commercially in numerous calibers including .45. In 1902 the U.S. Army purchased several thousand of the 1878 revolvers in caliber .45 Colt with an over sized trigger guard. These were issued by the US Army to the, then new, Philippine Constabulary Corps. Some of them are also believed to have accompanied US troops to Alaska in the early 1900s. For these reasons the 1902 purchase revolvers are sometimes called the Alaskan or Philippine model. Although long obsolete to the US Army these revolvers were still in use in the Philippines when Japan invaded in 1941.

The third .45 made by Colt was the New Service Double Action revolver. From introduction in 1898 to the beginning of World War II it was a major part of the Colt line. In caliber .45 Colt it was accepted by the U.S. Military as the Model 1909 .45 revolver and replaced the 1873 Single Action revolvers. It primarily differed from the Model 1878 by having a swing out cylinder for faster loading with a new method of ejecting cartridges, and an improved trigger design. The New Service revolver was also available in other calibers such as .38 Special, and later on in the 20th century, .357 Magnum.

One of the first truly modern-style handguns, the Colt revolvers became known as "The Great Equalizer", because they could be loaded and fired by anyone, whereas most previous guns had required sufficient strength and dexterity. In theory, anyone who had a modern-style revolver was equal to anyone else, regardless of their relative physical abilities. This term has since come to be used for firearms in general, as awkward weapons like muzzle-loaded muskets became a thing of the past.

Colt was one of the first companies to create a product with interchangeable parts. At the New York Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1853, a Colt exhibition dissembled ten guns and reassembled ten guns using different parts from different guns.

Though the US was not directly involved in the Crimean War (1854–1856), Colt weapons were used by both sides.

The OWA Colt refers to the earliest issued Single Action Armies which were inspected by Orville W. Ainsworth. O.W. Ainsworth was the ordnance sub-inspector at the Colt factory for approximately the first thirteen months (Oct. 1873 to Nov. 1874) of the Single Action Army's production. It was Ainsworth that inspected the Colts used by General Custer's 7th Cavalry troops at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. However General Custer himself fell holding a couple of English-made Webley revolvers in his hands.

Henry Nettleton was the ordnance inspector in 1878 at the Springfield Armory. Second only to the OWA Colts, Nettleton Colts are prized by serious collectors. Both the Nettleton and OWA Colts will have the cartouche (OWA or HN) on the left side of the wood grip.

The Single Action Army has been copied by numerous makers both in America and in Europe. The two major makers of Colt replicas are Aldo Uberti in Italy and U.S. Fire Arms Mfg. Co. in Hartford, Connecticut.[2]

Under a contract with the U.S. Army Colt Arms built the Model 1895 ten-barrel variant of the Gatling Gun, capable of firing 800-900 .30 Army rounds per minute, and used with great effect at the Battle of San Juan Hill.[3] The M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun or "Potato Digger" was also built by Colt. The Colt-Browning was one of the first gas-operated machine guns, originally invented by by John Browning. It became the first automatic machine gun adopted by the United States and saw limited use by the U.S. Marine Corps at invasion of Guantánamo Bay and by the 1st Volunteer Infantry in the Santiago campaign in the Spanish-American War.

The Colt entry for a semi-automatic pistol at the turn of the 20th century defeated two other contenders: a .45 Pistol Parabellum (e.g. the Luger pistol) from DWM and an entry from Savage Arms. There had been many other contenders earlier on, but these were eliminated. The Colt also competed with Colt M1900 design in .38 ACP against other entrants in a 1900 competition that included entries from Mauser. The winner evolved into the famous 1911 pistol in 45 ACP, and would be used by the U.S. military for much of the 20th Century and several major wars; variants in 38 Super and other calibers (even 38 Special) and in other barrel lengths found use by civilians and in pistol competition.

1911–1984

Model of 1911 Colt Pistol, U.S. Army, first year of production (1912)

The fourth famous "Colt 45" is the John Browning-designed M1911, which was the standard U.S. military sidearm from 1911 to 1985. The M1911 is still frequently used by civilians, law enforcement, and military agencies today. Variants in other barrel lengths and other calibers (notably 38 Super and 9 mm) have been used extensively in combat shooting and pistol marksmanship, and the guns often are "accurized" into amazingly precise competition tools or custom combat weapons.

During World War I Colt was not able to meet the U.S. military's demand for 1911 production. A decision was then made to accept Colt New Service revolvers in caliber .45 ACP as a substitute weapon. This New Service variant in 45 ACP was called the U.S. Model 1917 revolver. A competing manufacturer, Smith & Wesson, also made double action revolvers in .45 ACP which were also accepted and issued by the U.S. military as Model 1917 revolvers. Extensive use of the 1917 revolvers as well as the 1911 semi-automatic pistol occurred during World War I.

By the end of World War I production of the 1911 had reached high enough numbers so the 1917 revolvers were declared limited standard weapons and large numbers of them were placed in storage until World War II when they again saw service with the US military. Small numbers of the Model 1917 revolvers remained in service within the continental U.S. with the Army's MP Corps until the 1960s.

The period between the world wars was marked by increased adoption of Colt revolvers by many police departments. The most popular police caliber was .38 Special. Colt offered a snub-nosed revolver called the Detective Special, and also marketed a longer barreled small frame .38 as the Police Positive. A heavier, but very similar, revolver on a larger frame was the Colt Official Police. These weapons would dominate the US law enforcement market until the 1950s when Smith and Wesson began to aggressively market their own .38 Special design. During World War II, 2 and 4 inch parkerized versions of the .38 Official Police were purchased by the U.S. military for issuance to Defense Plant guards as the Colt Commando revolver.

Since Auto Ordnance had no tooling for production, Colt acquired the license for the Thompson 1921 SMG and made a first batch of 15,000 pieces the first production year.

Colt's New Service revolver line remained in production until World War II when a decision was made by Colt to move the machinery outside to the parking lot to make room for higher priority military contract production. There it rusted and the production of this model was never resumed. Civilian models of the New Service had been available in many different barrel lengths and calibers. In the 1930s an adjustable sight version called the Shooting Master with checkered grips was marketed.

The end of World War II also saw the end of Colt production of their popular .32 and .380 pocket pistols which had begun in 1903 and 1908 respectively. The U.S. military versions of these pistols was called the Model M. These concealable pistols were purchased by the U.S. military during World War II for usage by couriers, clandestine service operatives, military investigators and were also issued to U.S. Army generals as the General Officer Pistol.

The 1960s were boom years for Colt with the escalation of the Vietnam War, Robert McNamara shutting down the Springfield Armory, and the U.S. Army's subsequent adoption of the M16 (to which Colt held the production rights.)

Colt would capitalize on this with a range of AR-15 derivative carbines. They also developed AR-15 based Squad Automatic Weapons, and the Colt SCAMP, an early PDW design.

The Colt XM148 grenade launcher was created by Colt's Design Project Engineer, gun designer Karl R. Lewis. The May 1967 "Colt's Ink" newsletter announced that he had won a national competition for his selection and treatment of materials in the design. The newsletter stated in part, "In only 47 days, he wrote the specifications, designed the launcher, drew all the original prints, and had a working model built."

At the end of the 1970s, there was a program run by the Air Force, to replace the M1911A1. The Beretta 92S won, but this was contested by the Army. The Army ran their own trials, leading eventually to the Beretta 92F being selected as the M9.

1984–1992

Colt ACR/M16A2E2 (second from top to bottom), of the U.S. Advanced Combat Rifle program

The 1980s marked fairly good years for Colt, but the coming end of the Cold War would change all that. Colt had long left innovation in civilian firearms to their competitors, feeling that the handgun business could survive on their traditional double-action revolver and M1911 designs. Instead, Colt focused on the military market, where they held the primary contracts for production of rifles for the US military.

This strategy dramatically failed for Colt through a series of events in the 1980s. In 1984, the U.S. military standardized on the Beretta 92F. This was not much of a loss for Colt's current business, as M1911A1 production had stopped in 1945, and most had not been made by Colt at the time.

Meanwhile, the military rifle business was growing because the U.S. Military had a major demand for more upgraded M16s, the M16A2 model had just been adopted and the Military needed hundreds of thousands of them.

In 1986, Colt's workers, members of the United Auto Workers went on strike for higher wages. This strike would ultimately last for four years, and was one of the longest running labor strikes in American history. With replacement workers running production, the quality of Colt's firearms began to slip. Dissatisfied with Colt's production, in 1988 the U.S. military awarded the contract for future M16 production to Fabrique Nationale.

Some criticized Colt's range of handgun products in the late 1980s as out of touch with the demands of the market, and their once-vaunted reputation for quality had suffered during the UAW strike. Colt's stable of double action revolvers and single action pistols were seen as old fashioned by a marketplace that was captivated by the new generation of "wondernines" - high-capacity, 9 mm caliber handguns, as typified by the Glock 17.

Realizing that the future of the company was at stake, labor and management agreed to end the strike in an arrangement that resulted in Colt being sold to a group of private investors, the State of Connecticut, and the UAW itself.

The new Colt first attempted to address some of the demands of the market with the production in 1990 of the Double Eagle, a double action pistol based heavily on the M1911 design which was seen as an attempt to "modernize" the classic Browning design. Colt followed this up in 1992 with the Colt All American 2000, which was unlike any other handgun Colt had produced before.

The Colt All American 2000 was a polymer framed, rotary bolt, 9 mm handgun with a magazine capacity of 15 rounds. It was everything that Colt thought the civilian market wanted in a handgun. Unfortunately, the execution was disastrous. Early models were plagued with inaccuracy and unreliability, and suffered from the poor publicity of having to be recalled. The product launch failed and production of the All American 2000 ended in 1994.

The cost of developing Colt's ACR also cut into their bottom line, as none of the ACR contestants were adopted — a result that came out in the early 1990s.

All of the above ultimately led to the company's chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992. Colt Manufacturing Co. announced the termination of its production of double action revolvers in October 1999 [4].

1992–present

The 1990s brought the end of Cold War, which resulted in a large down turn for the entire defense industry. Colt was hit by this downturn, though it would be made worse later in the 1990s by a boycott.

The Boycott

In 1994, the assets of Colt were purchased by Zilkha & Co, a financial group owned by Donald Zilkha. It was speculated that Zilkha's financial backing of the company enabled Colt to begin winning back military contracts. In fact during the time period it won only one contract, the M4 carbine. However, the U.S. Military had already been purchasing Colt Carbines for the past 30 years (See Colt Commando).

During a 1998 Washington Post interview, CEO Ron Stewart stated that he would favor a federal permit system with training and testing for gun ownership. This led to a massive grass-roots boycott of Colt's products by gun stores and ordinary gun owners, some of whom sold their Colt firearms to cut into Colt's market share even more. This ultimately led to the resignation of Ron Stewart.

Zilkha replaced Stewart with Steven Sliwa and focused the remainder of Colt's handgun design efforts into "smart guns", a concept which was favored politically but had little interest or support among handgun owners or Police Departments. This research never produced any meaningful results due to the limited technology at the time.

The boycott of Colt has faded out with the new CEO William M. Keys, a retired U.S. Marine Lt. General, working hard to bring Colt back from its tarnished reputation. Due to the efforts of William Keys, Colt's quality has improved as much as its favor with diehard Colt fans.

Competition Heats Up

Most problematic for Colt, its flagship 1911 pistols and AR-15 rifles had to compete with a glut of the company's own used rifles and pistols that could be purchased at prices well below what Colt offered for their new products on the civilian market.

Colt also has to compete with other companies that make 1911-style pistols such as Kimber and AR-15 rifles such as Bushmaster. Bushmaster has subsequently overtaken Colt in the number of AR-15s sold on the civilian market.

Colt suffered a stinging legal defeat in court when it sued Bushmaster for trademark infringement claiming that "M4" was a trademark that it owned. The judge ruled that since the term M4 is a generic designation that Colt does not specifically own, Colt had to pay monetary reimbursement to Bushmaster to recoup Bushmaster's legal fees. The M4 designation itself comes from the U.S. military designation system, whose terms are in the public domain.

Colt continues production of classic designs such as the SAA, sold in both the limited collector's market and through more traditional channels. However, it survives primarily on the manufacturing of a variety of civilian and military weapons. The most popular of these are various AR-15 Carbines, a weapon category that it invented and helped develop over nearly 30 years since acquiring the AR-15 design. The AR-15 Carbine derivatives, and weapons like them have proved so popular that a large amount of competition has arisen in the area. As with AR-15 rifles, the original Colt designs and their derivatives are heavily copied, and as a result they face much competition from other manufacturers, including Springfield Armory, Kimber Manufacturing, Rock River Arms, and US Fire Arms.

Colt has entered in several US contracts with mixed results. For example, Colt had an entry in the Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR) program of the 1980s, but along with other contestants failed to replace the M16A2. Colt and many other makers entered the US trials for a new pistol in the 1980s, though the Beretta entry would win and become the M9 Pistol. The Colt OHWS handgun was beaten by H&K for what became the MK23 SOCOM, it was lighter than the H&K entry but lost in performance. Colt did not get to compete for the XM8 since it was not an open competition. Colt is a likely entrant in any competition for a new US service rifle. Current M16 rifles have been made primarily by FN USA since 1988. However, Colt remains the sole source for M4 carbines for the US military. Under their license agreement with Colt, the US military cannot legally award second-source production contracts for the M4 until July 1, 2009.

Firearms

Selected famous or innovative Colt products

Handguns

(the years in brackets name the year when production started, not the patent's year of the model)

Colt Diamondback .22
Colt Python Silhouette .357 Magnum
Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum

Long guns

Colt also manufactured several military long arms under contract including the M1918 BAR and Thompson SMG.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Flayderman, Norm (2001). Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms... and their values. Iola, WI: Krause Publications. p. 669. ISBN 0-87349-313-3. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Smith, WHB (1968). Book of Pistols and Revolvers. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books. 
  3. ↑ Parker, John H. (Lt.), History of the Gatling Gun Detachment, Kansas City, MO: Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Co. (1898), pp. 131-138
  4. ↑ http://calnra.com/COLTupdate.shtml

External links

Patent