At one time (and some may say even today though with a much
softer hand) gun tycoons really ran the show in this country and
Connecticut industrialist Samuel Colt was no exception, rather
the crowning example. The dominant American industrialist of his
era, Colt generated wealth that was so immense, at the time it
could be measured as a percentage of the U.S. Gross Domestic
Product and, as is usually the case whenever a single, brilliant
man amasses this much power, their attempts at outside the box
thinking can get really outside the box. Need an example? Take
Coltsville. Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company was
established in 1847. Company headquarters was located on 250
acres, secure from floods behind a 2-mile dike on the
Connecticut River at Hartford, complete with wharves and docking
facilities. By 1856, Colt presided over a significant workforce
and the largest Armoury in the world (i.e. the men and resources
to accomplish just about anything) and he set his sights on
fine-tuning the make-up an