Samuel Colt sells his first revolvers to the U.S. government

Background. Samuel Colt (July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862) was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company and made the mass production of revolvers commercially viable. His first two business ventures were producing firearms in Paterson, New Jersey, and making underwater mines. His business expanded rapidly after 1847, when the Texas Rangers ordered 1,000 revolvers during the American war with Mexico.

The 1847 Order. Captain Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers had acquired some of the first Colt revolvers produced during the Seminole War and saw their effective use when his 15-man unit defeated a larger force of 70 Comanches in Texas. Wanting to order Colt revolvers for the Rangers in the Mexican–American War, Walker traveled to New York City in search of Colt. On January 4, 1847, he met Colt in a gunsmith's shop and ordered 1,000 revolvers.

The Colt Walker. The Colt Walker, sometimes known as the Walker Colt, is a single-action six-shot black powder revolver, typically firing .44 caliber lead balls. It was designed in 1846 by Samuel Colt to the specifications of Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker. Before Colt began mass-production in 1847, handguns had not played a significant role in the history of the American West or the nation as a whole. Only 1,100 were originally made: 1,000 under a military contract and 100 for the civilian market, making original examples extremely rare and valuable.