登陆注册
19572800000045

第45章

Colt's ambition, however, soared beyond the occupation of itinerant showman, and he never forgot his revolver.As soon as he had money enough, he made models of the new arm and took out his patents; and, having enlisted the interest of capital, he set up the Patent Arms Company at Paterson, New Jersey, to manufacture the revolver.He did not succeed in having the revolver adopted by the Government, for the army officers for a long time objected to the percussion cap (an invention, by the way, then some twenty years old, which was just coming into use and without which Colt's revolver would not have been practicable) and thought that the new weapon might fail in an emergency.Colt found a market in Texas and among the frontiersmen who were fighting the Seminole War in Florida, but the sales were insufficient, and in 1842 the company was obliged to confess insolvency and close down the plant.Colt bought from the company the patent of the revolver, which was supposed to be worthless.

Nothing more happened until after the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846.Then came a loud call from General Zachary Taylor for a supply of Colt's revolvers.Colt had none.He had sold the last one to a Texas ranger.He had not even a model.Yet he took an order from the Government for a thousand and proceeded to construct a model.For the manufacture of the revolvers he arranged with the Whitney plant at Whitneyville.There he saw and scrutinized every detail of the factory system that Eli Whitney had established forty years earlier.He resolved to have a plant of his own on the same system and one that would far surpass Whitney's.Next year (1848) he rented premises in Hartford.His business prospered and increased.At last the Government demanded his revolvers.Within five years he had procured a site of two hundred and fifty acres fronting the Connecticut River at Hartford, and had there begun the erection of the greatest arms factory in the world.

Colt was a captain of captains.The ablest mechanic and industrial organizer in New England at that time was Elisha K.

Root.Colt went after him, outbidding every other bidder for his services, and brought him to Hartford to supervise the erection of the new factory and set up its machinery.Root was a great superintendent, and the phenomenal success of the Colt factory was due in a marked degree to him.He became president of the company after Colt's death in 1862, and under him were trained a large number of mechanics and inventors of new machine tools, who afterwards became celebrated leaders and officers in the industrial armies of the country.

The spectacular rise of the Colt factory at Hartford drew the attention of the British Government, and in 1854 Colt was invited to appear in London before a Parliamentary Committee on Small Arms.He lectured the members of the committee as if they had been school boys, telling them that the regular British gun was so bad that he would be ashamed to have it come from his shop.

Speaking of a plant which he had opened in London the year before he criticized the supposedly skilled British mechanic, saying: "Ibegan here by employing the highest-priced men that I could find to do difficult things, but I had to remove the whole of these high-priced men.Then I tried the cheapest I could find, and the more ignorant a man was, the more brains he had for my purpose;and the result was this: I had men now in my employ that Istarted with at two shillings a day, and in one short year I can not spare them at eight shillings a day."* Colt's audacity, however, did not offend the members of the committee and they decided to visit his American factory at Hartford.They did; and were so impressed that the British Government purchased in America a full set of machines for the manufacture of arms in the Royal Small Arms factory at Enfield, England, and took across the sea American workmen and foremen to set up and run these.

machines.A demand sprang up in Europe for Blanchard copying lathes and a hundred other American tools, and from this time on the manufacture of tools and appliances for other manufacturers, both at home and abroad, became an increasingly important industry of New England.

* Henry Barnard, "Armsmear", p.371.

The system which the gunmakers worked out and developed to meet their own requirements was capable of indefinite expansion.It was easily adapted to other kinds of manufacture.So it was that as new inventions came in the manufacturers of these found many of the needed tools ready for them, and any special modifications could be quickly made.A manufacturer, of machine tools will produce on demand a device to perform any operation, however difficult or intricate.Some of the machines are so versatile that specially designed sets of cutting edges will adapt them to almost any work.

Standardization, due to the machine tool, is one of the chief glories of American manufacturing.Accurate watches and clocks, bicycles and motor cars, innumerable devices to save labor in the home, the office, the shop, or on the farm, are within the reach of all, because the machine tool, tended by labor comparatively unskilled, does the greater part of the work of production.In the crisis of the World War, American manufacturers, turning from the arts of peace, promptly adapted their plants to the manufacture of the most complicated engines of destruction, which were produced in Europe only by skilled machinists of the highest class.

同类推荐
  • The Taming of the Shrew

    The Taming of the Shrew

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 后山诗话

    后山诗话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 醉翁谈录

    醉翁谈录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 金正希先生文集

    金正希先生文集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 亳州牡丹史

    亳州牡丹史

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 毗沙门天王经

    毗沙门天王经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 古陆奇缘

    古陆奇缘

    今生,有太多未能实现的遗憾与梦想。离别时甚至未能与深爱的他告别,虞雪只盼望:来生,能够圆了今生未了的爱、继上今生未尽的缘。未知来生相见否,陌上却逢再少年。这是多少人的梦想,也是虞雪深藏在心底的愿望。重生之后,她这吴国小公主羽千雪,是否能够在这名曰古陆的大地上实现心愿?听过百年哀歌,耗尽千年的守候。穿越之后又几度生死的羽千雪终于明白了一件事,那就是:既然,这现实的世界存不住美好,容不下我对你的爱。那么,我就去梦中的世界等着你好了。到那时,请记住,一定要紧紧牵住我的手,再也不要松开、再也别让我独自离开了。
  • 半叶草的等待

    半叶草的等待

    等不到我的半叶草,我愿一路寻找。跌跌撞撞里回首,有谁在沿路冲我微笑?却依旧不是我的那枚刚刚好。然后,年华一日日衰老。繁花开尽亦会凋。我于一个阳光明媚的日子停下奔跑。这一次,换你来找。亲爱的半叶草,但愿我们没有走散,希望这一次我能等的到。情节虚构,切勿模仿
  • 黄泉路上之今生前世

    黄泉路上之今生前世

    打破‘黄泉路上无客栈’的古语,今生前世客栈屹立黄泉之畔三百年,精怪人形故事出人意料,失忆老板娘和莲子君的情爱在诡异事中成型:“‘愛’的心已经腐烂,你被沉潭而死,为何还不愿意醒来……”“据说老板娘是自缢界的翘楚,舌头伸缩自如,不招蚊蝇……”“被红鸟翱翔于天,其实只是为了来看你一眼……”“念浅,爱是没有理由、没有原因的,感情是不能理性看待的!”“我的小昭华,我自然分得清楚你和他,相似的皮相也无法掩饰你们的不同!”************灵异小故事里的大言情,最萌两百年年龄差姐弟恋,1v1、女强男不弱,细水长流感情慢文,请喜欢的亲亲多多支持,不喜的亲亲请轻拍!
  • 恶魔四公主pk邪魅四王子

    恶魔四公主pk邪魅四王子

    她,冷酷无比;她,百变如她;她,可爱至极;她,妖媚无比。他,冷酷如他;他,桀骜不驯;他,温柔至极;他,风流无比。当她们遇到他们时,会擦出怎样的火花呢?
  • 读懂日本:菊与刀

    读懂日本:菊与刀

    “菊”是日本皇室家徽,“刀”是武士道文化的象征。本书用“菊”与“刀”来揭示日本人的性格,即日本文化的双重性,如爱美而黩武、尚礼而好斗、喜新而顽固、服从而不驯等,并且深入分析日本社会的等级制及有关习俗,并指出日本人双重性格产生的根源。全书从日本人生活方式和典型事件入手,于生动的叙述中进行有力论析,是了解日本民族绕不过的经典读本。
  • 重生之地下城

    重生之地下城

    苍云在异世前是一名dnf骨灰玩家,然而在一次车祸中他彻底的变成了植物人。变成植物人后他的灵魂飞向了阿拉德大陆,他会在阿拉德这片神奇的大陆上会有什么作为呢?让大家拭目以待吧。新的世界,新的旅程,一切的都是未知,在这里能遇到各种各样的异次元旅行者,只有战斗才是永恒不变的旋律。
  • 穿越汉朝之我在汉朝当皇帝

    穿越汉朝之我在汉朝当皇帝

    一个叫刘彻的在一次睡梦中,来到了两千多年的汉朝,在那里他发现自己在当时那环境下生活,先从一个小山谷当贫民和一位一老一少一起生活。然后,在一次意外中变成了大汉朝的皇帝刘彻,他领军击败匈奴,打通西域,平定朝鲜收复闽越,在他拥有超凡的21世纪能力将整个国家自理。
  • 秒杀

    秒杀

    当灵魂觉醒的那一刻,新的世界就展现在眼前。这是一个陌生的世界,一个符咒的世界。无数的秘境,无数的符兽,甚至还有更加高级的符咒世界,郭十二就像是小卒过河,秒杀任何阻挡自己生存的敌人,他需要不断的变强,需要寻找更强大符咒,当他站在符咒世界顶峰的时候,他还能继续前进吗?
  • 宠昏甜妻

    宠昏甜妻

    因为指腹为婚,她被逼嫁给一个三十七岁的大叔,在她准备逃跑的时候却发现他根本就不喜欢女人!于是她放心大胆的留了下来。直到某一天,她才恍然发现是自己看走了眼,气得在他身上又抓又挠。他抱着她,笑的温柔又腹黑:“乖乖躺着,一天是我陆战柯的女人,就一辈子是都我的女人。”