Sam Colt, in trying to improve firearms, did manage to rig four barrels onto a single breech but the thing weighed in at about fifty pounds. This wasn’t acceptable and besides, one night all four barrels discharged at the same time. Sam was lucky in that he walked away from that failed experiment all in one piece.
The Galvanic Battery
Twelve-year-old Sam Colt was so discouraged after his fifty-pound four-barrel single breech firearm exploded that he turned his experimenting attention in a new direction. This time he began playing around with a new and nearly unknown gadget, the galvanic battery.
Gunpowder, Electricity, and Water
Almost at once he discovered something that no one had yet known—gunpowder could be exploded by igniting it with electricity. Then he discovered another unknown, that an insulated wire could carry electricity under water. Neither Sam nor his father could possibly know that this little discovery would someday in the future "revolutionize naval warfare. His father told the boy to quit fooling around before he blew the factory up.
Sam Plans Big Bang
It was pretty obvious that Sam did not stop his experimenting with things that were explosive when, three years later, he advertised around the town of Ware that he would blow a raft "sky-high" on Ware Pond. The date for this grand extravaganza would be July 4, 1829. Sam’s father may have been apprehensive but probably knew there was no stopping his inquisitive fifteen year old son.
In preparation for his dramatic show, Sam had hid a battery in some bushes by the pond. Soon a crowd had gathered by the pond to witness what young Sam Colt had advertised: the blowing up of a raft. As Sam knelt to activate the battery he did not notice that the current had moved the raft beyond where he had anchored the explosive that the battery would touch off.
An Exploding Four-Barrel Gun: Sam Colt Gets Big Bang Out of Electricity continues with Sam Colt’s Exploding Raft: Crowd Treated to Mucky, Muddy Avalanche.
Previous: A Motherless Boy: Sam Colt Becomes an Indentured Servant.
