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Our American Stories

Samuel Colt and the Birth of the Revolver

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6817 Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, Phil Anschutz writes in Out Where the West Begins: “Samuel Colt’s life was the American story written in capital letters.” Here to tell that story is Ashley Hlebinsky—former co-host of Discovery Channel’s Master of Arms, former curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum, and president of The Gun Code, LLC.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This is an IHeart podcast.

0:06.1

And we continue with our American stories.

0:26.9

Samuel Colt became America's first industrial tycoon,

0:30.6

and his faithful wife Elizabeth proved herself to be no less extraordinary,

0:35.5

making Sam Colt's legend bigger than ever and his empire

0:38.9

her own. Bill Anchitz writes in his book Out Where the West begins, quote, Samuel Colt's

0:45.4

life was the American story written in capital letters. Here to tell the story is Ashley

0:51.4

Lubinsky, the former co-host of Discovery Channel's Master of Arms,

0:57.0

the former curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum and president of the Gun Code LLC.

1:05.0

Here's Ashley.

1:08.0

There's a famous quote that, well there's lots of variations on this quote, but basically

1:13.4

that God made man and Sam Colt made them equal.

1:19.1

I'm not 100% sure if that quote actually happened, but it certainly exemplifies the legend

1:25.5

that is Samuel Colt.

1:32.4

But the story behind Sam Colt is that he was the first person to make a commercially successful revolver. And you're not familiar with a revolver.

1:39.3

It kind of describes itself when you think about the technology. So you have a pistol or a rifle.

1:46.2

He actually made some shotguns. And you've got this cylinder that would rotate. It would

1:51.3

revolve. And you had ultimately five or six rounds. His guns varied early on. And you would load

1:58.5

each round into the gun. And then you would cock the hammer and

2:02.4

allowing the cylinder to rotate in order to fire the next round which is a pretty revolutionary

2:07.6

concept in firearms design because prior to really the industrial period in the United States

2:15.6

and overseas guns were individually made or, you know, produced in an armory.

...

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