The army soon ordered 1, weapons for use in the war begun with Mexico. Colt revived his revolving arms business and his manufacturing system of interchangeable parts allowed him to deliver all the requested firearms by With his business now a success, Colt looked to expand his operations. In he became the first American manufacturer to open a plant in England. He also began purchasing property along the banks of the Connecticut River in Hartford as a location on which to build a new factory.
He bought the land for a very low price because of its susceptibility to flooding and built a two-mile-long dike to protect his operations from the river. Colt installed the distinctive onion dome on top of his plant to draw extra attention to his business. Colt sold his products through a variety of different outlets. He employed a small force of traveling salesman and also utilized jobbers who acted as wholesale agents capable of selling product to retailers in large quantities.
In addition, Colt accepted orders directly from rich and powerful customers looking for customized pieces. He marketed his product through ad campaigns focused on romantic displays of Western heroism, and also by designing rich ornamental pieces for display at international fairs. It was a strategy that proved very successful. By the time of his death in , Colt was one of the richest men in the country.
He produced over , firearms in his lifetime and made his brand the most widely known in existence. On February 4, , approximately an hour after beginning their workday, workers noticed fire and smoke rising from the attic of the Colt factory.
A steam gong alarm sounded and workers rushed to the attic with a hose, but no water came out. Here, Colt first manufactured his newly patented repeating firearm, the revolver, with mother of pearl handles, which were essential in securing the American frontier. Between and , approximately 5, muskets rifles, and revolvers were made here. Link to Colt Manufacturing History Webpage. Excerpt from the Maxman Report:. The Gun Mill was constructed by the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company in , on the original site of a rolling mill and nail factory.
The Gun Mill was a four-story brownstone structure, with a central projecting stair tower. A weathervane in the shape of a gun capped the belltower, and encircling the factory was a picket fence, in which each picket was shaped as a wooden gun. The Colt Gun Mill, on the right. The revolvers patented by Samuel Colt were manufactured in this building until , when the company failed. Beginning in the 's, the site was given over wholly to the manufacture of silk and other textiles; the first manufacture of sewing silk in the United States reputedly took place on this site.
As the demand for silk grew, the partners John Ryle and G. Murray refitted the fifth floor of the Gun Mill as a weaving shop and constructed three new buildings on the Gun Mill property closer to the river.
A new boiler was added on the north side of the Gun Mill at the turn of the century. In the 's, the upper two floors of the Gun Mill were razed because they were considered unsafe for machinery.
This demolition followed the razing of the fifth floor of the mill and the top floor and colonnaded lookout of the bell tower, which took place sometime prior to For Colt the huge increase in gun sales led to a twelve-month period of stock growth. This did not include already completed orders.
This influx of capital to the state meant that companies like Colt needed to expand their workforce to increase production. Unemployment around the country dropped to 1. Many women would not have been counted as unemployed because they were not seeking employment, nor did unemployment count for the waves of newly-arrived immigrants that were coming from Europe to look for jobs. From December to August the United States economy saw forty-four straight months of expansion.
Things were looking bright for industry in Connecticut and the entrance of the United States into World War I in took the demand for war materials to an unheard of level. Joining France and England, the United States quickly realized that they could not produce enough munitions or war supplies by themselves and needed to hire private manufacturers to make up the difference. It was easier for the U. S to meet their war material needs in because of the expansion that had already taken place in the industry due to foreign government's production contracts.
The U. S economy. When tested in Washington D. C the machine gun was able to fire 60, rounds at rounds a minute with no jams or malfunctions.
The gun was adopted by the United States army after this impressive trial and Colt opened a new factory in Meriden to fulfill the war order of 10, Browning Ms. Despite the addition of this new factory Colt was unable to meet the full demand for machine guns by the US government and other gun manufacturers like Remington in Bridgeport were also given war orders. George Chinn, The Machine Gun.
In the final year of the Great War, factory production was at its peak in Connecticut. All production at the Colt Manufacturing Company was for the war, whether it was producing. The workforce for Colt had reached 6, men and women.
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