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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
"his firearms were credited in taming the western frontier" = genocide of the native americans?
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)
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.
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)
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'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)
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)
What happened to the references to Supernatural? Why were they removed? Minaker ( talk) 20:04, 8 December 2008 (UTC)
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)
Colt pistols were neither breech loading nor breach loading. J8079s ( talk) 00:44, 25 August 2008 (UTC)
Germany did not even exist in 1835 so the sentence claiming there was tension between Germany and America seems suspect to me. Actually, a lot of the section on gunsmithing seems to be uncorroborated; I see other users have been requesting citations, too Faulty ( talk) 17:51, 25 February 2010 (UTC)
GA toolbox |
---|
Reviewing |
Reviewer: MathewTownsend ( talk · contribs) 21:30, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
I will begin this review shortly. (I worked a little on his brother's article. Interesting family.)
MathewTownsend ( talk) 21:30, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
I'm taking a rest. MathewTownsend ( talk) 23:27, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
I'm putting this on hold while I read through it again. MathewTownsend ( talk) 21:06, 21 December 2011 (UTC)
GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)
Is this source used: from Jstor MathewTownsend ( talk) 18:38, 31 December 2011 (UTC)
Agree that's the best way to go.
Isn't it the cylinder bolt that's the ingenious part? Surely pawls (AKA - in America - "hands") were around in Ethan Allen pepperboxes etc? It's not getting the cylinder to rotate that's the problem, but getting it to lock up in exactly the right place every time, which the spit-tailed cylinder bolt achieves beautifully. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.157.159.87 ( talk) 11:11, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
The section regarding Colt and Ethan Allen needs to accurately report the information in the reference cited, (Houze 2006) and to be consistent with all other sources on Ethan Allen firearms. What was originally in the article was blatantly wrong and simply is not what was reported in the text that was cited. Ethan Allen remained in the firearms business for a decade after Colt threatened to sue him, and according to Houze, Colt never did actually sue. Allen’s first partner Charles Thurber simply retired and Allen continued in business, making pepperboxes and later revolvers with Thomas Wheelock. A later law suit brought by Rollin White, on behalf of Smith and Wesson, was a far greater inconvenience for Allen and Wheelock than the threat from Colt’s lawyer, but that is another story.
The original text was: In 1852, gun maker Allen & Thurber infringed on the patent; Colt sued and the court ordered that Colt receive royalties on each gun that had been sold by the rival company. This caused Allen & Thurber to cease production of its pepperbox revolver and eventually go out of business.
I proposed a change to: In 1852, gun makers James Warner and Mass. Arms infringed on the patent; Colt sued and the court ordered that these companies cease revolver production. They also threatened to sue Allen & Thurber over the cylinder design of their double action pepperbox revolver. However it is unclear that this suit would have been successful and the case was resolved with a modest settlement of $15,000. Production of Allen pepperboxes continued until the expiration of Colt's patent in 1857. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rlpapke ( talk • contribs) 20:22, 14 March 2012 (UTC)
He did not get gold medal or life membership - the biographers are simply full of it. He got a silver medal.
See talk page of Telford Medal, or see http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pBYAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA115#v=onepage&q&f=false
See also http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/docserver/fulltext/imotp.1863.23366.pdf?expires=1339479987&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=EDC35DD0BCD52B3ED3D23AA2E6F88FB0 - "He joined the Institution as an Associate in the year 1852, and received a Telford Medal for the Paper already referred to."
Oranjblud ( talk) 05:33, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
In first paragraph under the heading of "Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company (1847–1860)" concerning the fulfillment of the contract to manufacture the Colt Walker, it states this work was done by Eli Whitney Blake, Jr. with a link to that inventor's page. However,it not was Eli Whitney Blake, Jr, but was instead Eli Whitney, Jr. the son of Eli Whitney (inventor of the Cotton gin). Eli Whitney Blake, Jr. was the son of the nephew of inventor of the cotton gin.
Evidently Eli was a common surname for the Whitney family since it has been reported that the father of the cotton gin inventor was also named Eli. However, it appears that the Eli who invented the cotton gin never used the suffix of junior. This was used for his son though, and this son was running the Whitney arms factory at the time Colt hired them to fulfill the contract to build the Walker revolver.
Eli Whitney, Jr. (actually, Whitney the 3rd if one uses the standard convention)had taken over the family business in the 1840's and did quite well with it according to the following short biography found at the Whitney Museum site.
http://www.eliwhitney.org/new/museum/eli-whitney/family
It would seem that he also may deserve a short bio on Wikipedia.
I did not want to take on the actual editing since I am new to this, but thought I would pass on the information that I found.
Forward observer (
talk)
21:42, 30 December 2012 (UTC)
In the Later Years and Death section the wording makes it unclear if what is being claimed is Colt's beliefs about the cause of the Civil War or if the article is asserting a "real" cause of the Civil War ... one that would be quite contentious. If it is Colt's belief, the language should be cleaned up. If it is an assertion by the article, it should be deleted as non-encyclopedic. (25 Feb 2015). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.95.126.175 ( talk) 16:18, 25 February 2015 (UTC)
The article contradicts itself on this point. The beginning says: "his factory in Hartford supplied firearms only to the North and not to the South."
This is later directly contradicted, saying he saw no problem selling to both sides, including 2000 revolvers to a Conderate agent. (This must be the Hartford factory as he had closed the London operation years earlier.)
Obviously something needs to be corrected. 06:38, 10 March 2015 (UTC)~~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bflood ( talk • contribs)
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This article has uncited passages and an orange "additional citations needed" banner at the top. Z1720 ( talk) 18:24, 24 December 2023 (UTC)
His public speaking skills were so prized that he was thought to be a doctor and was obligated to cure an apparent cholera epidemic aboard a riverboat by giving his patients a dose of nitrous oxide.WP MILHIST may be interested, and I've left a notification there. Trainsandotherthings ( talk) 18:35, 25 December 2023 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Samuel Colt article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
![]() | This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
![]() | Samuel Colt was one of the History good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake. | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
![]() | This ![]() It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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
"his firearms were credited in taming the western frontier" = genocide of the native americans?
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)
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.
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)
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'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)
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)
What happened to the references to Supernatural? Why were they removed? Minaker ( talk) 20:04, 8 December 2008 (UTC)
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)
Colt pistols were neither breech loading nor breach loading. J8079s ( talk) 00:44, 25 August 2008 (UTC)
Germany did not even exist in 1835 so the sentence claiming there was tension between Germany and America seems suspect to me. Actually, a lot of the section on gunsmithing seems to be uncorroborated; I see other users have been requesting citations, too Faulty ( talk) 17:51, 25 February 2010 (UTC)
GA toolbox |
---|
Reviewing |
Reviewer: MathewTownsend ( talk · contribs) 21:30, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
I will begin this review shortly. (I worked a little on his brother's article. Interesting family.)
MathewTownsend ( talk) 21:30, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
I'm taking a rest. MathewTownsend ( talk) 23:27, 20 December 2011 (UTC)
I'm putting this on hold while I read through it again. MathewTownsend ( talk) 21:06, 21 December 2011 (UTC)
GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)
Is this source used: from Jstor MathewTownsend ( talk) 18:38, 31 December 2011 (UTC)
Agree that's the best way to go.
Isn't it the cylinder bolt that's the ingenious part? Surely pawls (AKA - in America - "hands") were around in Ethan Allen pepperboxes etc? It's not getting the cylinder to rotate that's the problem, but getting it to lock up in exactly the right place every time, which the spit-tailed cylinder bolt achieves beautifully. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.157.159.87 ( talk) 11:11, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
The section regarding Colt and Ethan Allen needs to accurately report the information in the reference cited, (Houze 2006) and to be consistent with all other sources on Ethan Allen firearms. What was originally in the article was blatantly wrong and simply is not what was reported in the text that was cited. Ethan Allen remained in the firearms business for a decade after Colt threatened to sue him, and according to Houze, Colt never did actually sue. Allen’s first partner Charles Thurber simply retired and Allen continued in business, making pepperboxes and later revolvers with Thomas Wheelock. A later law suit brought by Rollin White, on behalf of Smith and Wesson, was a far greater inconvenience for Allen and Wheelock than the threat from Colt’s lawyer, but that is another story.
The original text was: In 1852, gun maker Allen & Thurber infringed on the patent; Colt sued and the court ordered that Colt receive royalties on each gun that had been sold by the rival company. This caused Allen & Thurber to cease production of its pepperbox revolver and eventually go out of business.
I proposed a change to: In 1852, gun makers James Warner and Mass. Arms infringed on the patent; Colt sued and the court ordered that these companies cease revolver production. They also threatened to sue Allen & Thurber over the cylinder design of their double action pepperbox revolver. However it is unclear that this suit would have been successful and the case was resolved with a modest settlement of $15,000. Production of Allen pepperboxes continued until the expiration of Colt's patent in 1857. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rlpapke ( talk • contribs) 20:22, 14 March 2012 (UTC)
He did not get gold medal or life membership - the biographers are simply full of it. He got a silver medal.
See talk page of Telford Medal, or see http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pBYAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA115#v=onepage&q&f=false
See also http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/docserver/fulltext/imotp.1863.23366.pdf?expires=1339479987&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=EDC35DD0BCD52B3ED3D23AA2E6F88FB0 - "He joined the Institution as an Associate in the year 1852, and received a Telford Medal for the Paper already referred to."
Oranjblud ( talk) 05:33, 12 June 2012 (UTC)
In first paragraph under the heading of "Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company (1847–1860)" concerning the fulfillment of the contract to manufacture the Colt Walker, it states this work was done by Eli Whitney Blake, Jr. with a link to that inventor's page. However,it not was Eli Whitney Blake, Jr, but was instead Eli Whitney, Jr. the son of Eli Whitney (inventor of the Cotton gin). Eli Whitney Blake, Jr. was the son of the nephew of inventor of the cotton gin.
Evidently Eli was a common surname for the Whitney family since it has been reported that the father of the cotton gin inventor was also named Eli. However, it appears that the Eli who invented the cotton gin never used the suffix of junior. This was used for his son though, and this son was running the Whitney arms factory at the time Colt hired them to fulfill the contract to build the Walker revolver.
Eli Whitney, Jr. (actually, Whitney the 3rd if one uses the standard convention)had taken over the family business in the 1840's and did quite well with it according to the following short biography found at the Whitney Museum site.
http://www.eliwhitney.org/new/museum/eli-whitney/family
It would seem that he also may deserve a short bio on Wikipedia.
I did not want to take on the actual editing since I am new to this, but thought I would pass on the information that I found.
Forward observer (
talk)
21:42, 30 December 2012 (UTC)
In the Later Years and Death section the wording makes it unclear if what is being claimed is Colt's beliefs about the cause of the Civil War or if the article is asserting a "real" cause of the Civil War ... one that would be quite contentious. If it is Colt's belief, the language should be cleaned up. If it is an assertion by the article, it should be deleted as non-encyclopedic. (25 Feb 2015). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.95.126.175 ( talk) 16:18, 25 February 2015 (UTC)
The article contradicts itself on this point. The beginning says: "his factory in Hartford supplied firearms only to the North and not to the South."
This is later directly contradicted, saying he saw no problem selling to both sides, including 2000 revolvers to a Conderate agent. (This must be the Hartford factory as he had closed the London operation years earlier.)
Obviously something needs to be corrected. 06:38, 10 March 2015 (UTC)~~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bflood ( talk • contribs)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 3 external links on Samuel Colt. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
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(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 09:06, 7 December 2017 (UTC)
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
This article has uncited passages and an orange "additional citations needed" banner at the top. Z1720 ( talk) 18:24, 24 December 2023 (UTC)
His public speaking skills were so prized that he was thought to be a doctor and was obligated to cure an apparent cholera epidemic aboard a riverboat by giving his patients a dose of nitrous oxide.WP MILHIST may be interested, and I've left a notification there. Trainsandotherthings ( talk) 18:35, 25 December 2023 (UTC)