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| Science & Technology |
| "Blessed Are the Peace Makers, for they shall be called the sons of God." Mathew 5:9 |
| 2011-02-15 |
| Colt: The Peace Maker a.k.a. Single Action Army One of Texas's deadliest outlaws, John Wesley Hardin was reputed to be the meanest man alive, an accolade he supposedly earned by killing a man for snoring. He committed his first murder at age 15 and admitted to killing more than 40 men over 27 years. In May 1874, Hardin killed Charles Webb, the deputy sheriff of Brown County and a former Texas Ranger. John Barclay Armstrong, a Texas Ranger known as "McNelly's Bulldog" since he served with the Special Force as a sergeant and Captain Leander McNelly's right hand, received permission to arrest the outlaw. He pursued Hardin across Alabama and into Florida and caught up with him in Pensacola. Armstrong, Colt pistol in hand, boarded a train that Hardin and four companions were on, the outlaw shouted, "Texas, by God!" and drew his own pistol. When it was over, one of his gang members was killed, and his three surviving friends were staring at ArmstrongÂ’s pistol. Hardin had been knocked unconscious. The first practical revolving-cylinder handgun was invented in 1831 by Samuel Colt of Hartford, Connecticut, and patented on February 25, 1836, the year of the Texas Revolution. Texas became a proving ground and nearly the only market for Colt's revolutionary product. Colt provided the struggling republic and frontier state with the increased firepower necessary to defend and advance itself. Colt revolvers were manufactured first in 1837 at Paterson, New Jersey, by the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company. Three principal variations of these five-shot Paterson Colt handguns were produced: the .28 caliber Pocket model, the .31 caliber Belt model, and the .36 caliber Holster model. The Republic of Texas ordered 180 of the .36 caliber Holster model revolvers for its navy in August 1839. Numbers of these rather delicate arms were issued to various Texas warships and served well in engagements against Mexico over the next four years. Colt was so pleased by the Texas purchase and with the performance of his product that he engraved the scene of the victorious naval battle fought off Campeche on May 16, 1843, by the Texas Navy on the cylinders of the 1851 Navy, 1860 Army, and 1861 Navy model Colts (in all, nearly 500,000 revolvers)... |
| Posted by:Ebbomomp Unearong1606 |