Samuel Colt was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1814. During , New Jerseythe early 1830s he developed an idea for a firearm using a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers. The concept allowed several shots to be fired without reloading after every shot.
Colt received patents for his revolving firearm in 1835 and 1836. To turn his invention into a commercially manufactured weapon, he needed capital, machinery, skilled workers, and a dependable source of power.
Paterson was an ideal location.
The city had been established as an industrial center around the enormous waterpower of the Great Falls of the Passaic River. The Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.) had created an extensive system of raceways that carried water from above the falls to factories throughout the industrial district.
Colt obtained financial backing and organized the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company in 1836. The company established its factory along the Passaic River in Paterson, in the area of Van Houten and Mill Streets, immediately below the Great Falls.
Construction of the Gun Mill
The factory became known as the Colt Gun Mill. Contemporary descriptions and later historical accounts describe it as a substantial multi-story brownstone industrial building.
The location was particularly valuable because waterpower could be harnessed to operate the machinery necessary for manufacturing firearms. The factory represented the type of highly mechanized industry that Paterson’s founders had envisioned nearly half a century earlier.
Colt’s factory was not simply a gunsmith’s shop. His ambition was to develop a modern manufacturing system capable of producing firearms in quantity and with standardized components.
Manufacturing the Colt Paterson
The first firearms produced at the Paterson works were revolving rifles, followed by the famous Colt Paterson revolvers. Colt’s first manufactured firearm was a ring-lever revolving rifle, produced beginning in 1837. The revolver followed soon afterward.
The early Paterson revolver was a remarkable weapon for its time. It used a rotating cylinder containing multiple chambers, allowing the shooter to fire several shots before reloading.
Unlike later Colt revolvers, the early Paterson featured a folding trigger that remained concealed until the hammer was cocked. Early models were produced in several calibers, including .28, .31 and .36 caliber.
The factory also produced revolving rifles, carbines and shotguns.
The Colt Paterson revolver became the first commercially manufactured repeating handgun associated with Samuel Colt and gave Paterson a permanent place in the history of American firearms.
The Importance of Interchangeable Manufacturing
One of Colt’s most important contributions was not simply the revolver itself but his attempt to apply standardized and interchangeable manufacturing techniques to firearms.
The concept was revolutionary. Instead of having a gunsmith individually fit every component to a particular weapon, Colt sought to manufacture standardized parts that could be assembled efficiently.
The system was not yet perfected at the Paterson factory, and production remained expensive and technically difficult. Nevertheless, the Paterson operation was an important step toward the American system of mass production that would develop during the nineteenth century.
Military Use
Colt’s revolving firearms attracted the attention of the United States military.
During the Second Seminole War in Florida, Colt’s revolving rifles demonstrated the potential advantage of a weapon that could fire repeatedly without the lengthy reloading process required by conventional single-shot firearms. The Army purchased some of Colt’s revolving firearms for use during the conflict.
Colt also sought military and government contracts to expand his market.
The company, however, was dependent upon obtaining sufficient orders to support its expensive manufacturing operation.
The Failure of the Patent Arms Company
Despite the technological importance of Colt’s firearms, the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company encountered serious financial difficulties.
The weapons were complicated and expensive to manufacture, while the market for repeating firearms was still relatively small. Military orders were insufficient, and civilian demand had not yet developed enough to sustain the factory.
By 1842, the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company had failed and the Paterson factory ceased firearms production. The National Park Service identifies September 1842 as the closing of Colt’s Paterson operation.
The failure was a major setback for Samuel Colt, but it did not end his career as a firearms manufacturer.
From Gun Mill to Silk Mill
One of the most interesting chapters in the history of the building came after Colt’s firearms business failed.
The building was subsequently adapted for textile manufacturing. Paterson was beginning its transformation into America’s “Silk City,” and the former Gun Mill became part of that expanding textile industry.
The site is associated with the early development of silk manufacturing in Paterson, including the work of John Ryle, who became one of the city’s most important silk manufacturers. Historical accounts identify the former Colt facility as an early silk-manufacturing location.
Thus, the building played a role in two of Paterson’s most important industrial stories:
Colt firearms → Paterson silk manufacturing
The same industrial location that had produced innovative repeating firearms became part of the industry that ultimately gave Paterson its famous nickname, the Silk City.
The Colt Gun Mill and the Great Falls
The location of the Gun Mill was fundamental to its history.
The building stood immediately below the Great Falls of the Passaic River, where Paterson’s industrial raceway system supplied power to factories.
The Great Falls provided the energy that attracted industries ranging from firearms and locomotives to textiles and machinery. The National Park Service notes that Paterson’s industrial development depended upon harnessing the Passaic River’s waterpower.
The Colt Gun Mill therefore represents an important link between Alexander Hamilton’s vision for Paterson as an industrial city and the technological developments that followed.
Decline and Ruins
After decades of industrial use, the former Gun Mill eventually deteriorated. Much of the original industrial complex disappeared, leaving portions of the historic masonry structure.
Today, the remains of the Colt factory are associated with the industrial ruins near the Great Falls. The location is part of the broader historic landscape of Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park.
Samuel Colt Paterson Factory Site
The ruins are particularly significant because they represent the physical remains of the place where Samuel Colt’s first firearms manufacturing enterprise was established.
Colt’s Legacy
Samuel Colt eventually recovered from the failure of his Paterson company. His opportunity came several years later when the United States military again became interested in his revolvers.
In 1847, Colt received an order for a large number of improved revolvers associated with Captain Samuel H. Walker. Colt subsequently established a much larger and more successful firearms operation in Hartford, Connecticut.
The later Hartford company became internationally famous.
But the story began in Paterson.
The Colt Gun Mill was the birthplace of the Colt Paterson revolver and the location of Samuel Colt’s first serious attempt to transform his invention into a modern industrial product.
Historical Significance
The Colt Gun Mill is important to Paterson history for several reasons:
- Birthplace of Colt firearms manufacturing in America
- Site of Samuel Colt’s first firearms factory
- Birthplace of the Colt Paterson revolver
- Early example of mechanized firearm manufacturing
- Important experiment in interchangeable manufacturing
- Part of Paterson’s water-powered industrial system
- Later associated with the development of Paterson’s silk industry
- Important surviving element of the Great Falls industrial landscape
The Paterson Museum preserves an important collection of Colt Paterson firearms and interprets the city’s role in the development of these early weapons.
•Museum•OpenThe Colt Gun Mill in Paterson History
The story of the Colt Gun Mill is ultimately a story of innovation, industrial experimentation, failure, and transformation.
Samuel Colt came to Paterson with an invention that could change the firearms industry. The city’s Great Falls provided the power and its industrial infrastructure provided the setting for his experiment. Although the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company survived only about six years, the firearms produced there became historically significant.
After the guns were gone, the building found another life in Paterson’s growing silk industry.
Today, the remaining ruins serve as a reminder that Paterson’s industrial heritage was not created by a single industry. Firearms, textiles, locomotives, machinery and other industries all grew from the same extraordinary waterpower of the Great Falls.
The Colt Gun Mill therefore deserves to be remembered not only as the birthplace of the Colt Paterson, but as one of the places where Paterson helped launch America’s age of industrial innovation.