Samuel Colt and the Colt Revolver Essay

Flooding of the settlement was problematic. By 1812, the settlers had built miles of levees on the banks of the river. For the next two hundred years, the surrounding wetlands were drained to eliminate swamps filled with yellow fever carrying mosquitoes and to encourage economic development. Draining water from peaty soils encouraged subsidence. The land which was just inches above sea level to begin with steadily sank. In combat of this, higher and stronger levees were built, tightening the straight jacket already placed upon the Mississippi River. The massive flooding of 1928 brought further flood control systems implemented by the Army Corps of Engineers with Congressional blessing. By the 1950’s, dramatic rates of land loss in Louisiana’s coastal zone stretched across 300 miles from Texas to Mississippi and inland 50 miles. (Tibbetts)

On February 25, 1932, the Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, put an end to the caliber issue, stating "this change will introduce an element of chaos, confusion and uncertainty which, when magnified under war conditions, would more than counteract the beneficial effect of any semi-automatic rifle." With this statement, MacArthur ordered the development of a .30 caliber rifle. This did not delay Garand's work because he had already developed a design to fire the .30 caliber on his own time in anticipation of such an event. Two more years would pass before the rifle was adopted as the United States Rifle, M1 on January 9, 1936. The United States became the first country in history to adopt a semi-automatic rifle as its standard military rifle after this event. Problems beset the M1 as it was first being issued. They occurred in the area where expanding gases of the fired bullets were tapped from the barrel to operate the rifle and the rifle suffered stoppages after firing only seven of the eight rounds in its clip.

May 31, 1889 was a day that brought terror to the small town of Johnstown Pennsylvania. The small town was established in 1794 as a steel town and had a population on 30,000. The cause of the flood actually starts not at the town but 14 upstream at the South Fork Dam were the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creeks rivers meet as you can see in the image below. At this place is Lake Conemaugh, a 3-mile long lake located up against the side of a mountain, 450 feet higher than Johnstown PA. The construction started in 1840 under the supervision of engineer William E. Morris but wasn't completed till 1852 due to financial difficulties. (Johnstown Historical Society)

The first guns used in America were a simple machine where the person did most of the work. The user measured and put the powder

The history of firearms has changed dramatically since the late 1700’s. A rifle is no longer defined as a single shot, muzzle loading musket. Should

Guns were a well known asset in the American Colonies, first for hunting game, general self-protection from the Native Americans and eventually as weapons used in the American Revolutionary War. During this time period, the main objective that the founding fathers wanted to create was an

1830: President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act authorizing the move of of several tribes to Western lands. 1830: The Choctaws sign a treaty exchanging 8 million acres of land east of the Mississippi for land in Oklahoma. 1832: Democrat Andrew Jackson is re-elected president over his opponents, gathering 216 electoral votes to National Republican candidate Henry Clay's 49. 1834: Anti-Catholic protestors burn the Ursuline convent in Somerville, Massachusetts. 1836: Massachusetts Supreme Court rules that any slave brought within its borders by a master is free.

His son caldwell colt followed in his father's footsteps..not the literal meaning but he made a double barrelled rifle in 1879 and was chambered in .45-70 government. Colt made a great impact on life back then and still today many weapons gave us the advantage and we won many war because of it and there still being made in Hartford CT. In 2006 colt was introduced into the national inventors hall of

In light of the stereotyped, yet nonetheless accurate, obsession of firearms that the American people proudly uphold, restricting the use of guns proves to be a much more difficult feat than one would have you believe. “America 's pervasive gun culture stems in part from its colonial history, revolutionary roots, frontier expansion, and the Second Amendment”.

Streams formed that had never been there before, and rivers in the surrounding area rose more than a foot per hour. Johnstown had water in its streets, which was nothing new to them, but this time it was different. There was an air of fear around them. Surrounding railroad tracks were washed out throughout the day as the storm progressed. Eventually, nothing could move east or west, and all trains were stopped. Overnight, people at the club upriver noticed that the lake rose two feet over night. The spillway definitely couldn’t handle more water. Debris accumulated around the “innovative” fish screens that were put in place to make fishing easy and leisurely for the wealthy. The damns engineer left at 11:30 in hops of getting a message to Johnstown. In addition, a crew gathered in an effort to free spillway and raise the top of the

Prohibitions against the sale of cheap handguns originated in the post-Civil War South. In the 1870s and 1880s, small pistols costing as little as 50 or 60 cents were obtainable, and since they could be afforded by blacks and poor whites, these guns posed a significant threat to those who were wealthy or powerful. They were afraid that blacks and poor whites possessing guns would break their established social structure. So consequently, in 1870, Tennessee banned “selling all but ‘the Army and Navy model’ handgun”. Of course this type of gun was the most expensive one, which was beyond the means of most blacks and laboring people. In 1881, Arkansas enacted an almost identical ban on the sale of cheap revolvers. In 1902, South Carolina banned the sale of handguns to all but “sheriffs and their special deputies”. In 1893 and 1907, respectively, Alabama and Texas passed extremely heavy taxes on the sale of such weapons to put handguns out of the reach of the blacks and poor whites.

The Johnstown flood of 1889 is often remembered as the worst disaster that was caused by dam failure in America’s history. Over 2000 lives were lost, and about 17 million dollars in property damage was done to the town of Johnstown. Many of the leading industrialists of the 19th century were members of the club that owned the South Fork dam in 1889, drawing in nationwide attention. The relief effort was one of the first huge non-wartime disasters for the American Red Cross. Once again in the years 1936 and 1977 similar flooding would occur, ravaging the town of Johnstown, wreaking havoc on the lives of civilians.

The American Red Cross team had 50 volunteers to help lead by Clara Barton. It was a major diester it overflowed all the dams and got into people’s house and destoryed their values. May 31st it was already flooding

He was born on November 19th, 1831. When he was born he was the last president born in a log

on March 1794 Eli received a patent for his machine at that time people heard about Eli's design and the word was still spreading and imitations were on the market. At the beginning Eli's and Miller's hope to operate cotton gins themselves thusly cornering the cotton market, but they could not do this because for the large number of pirated machine and the small amount of capital. Eli took the offenders to court but at the end lost his first case in 1797 that is said to be ten years before he finally won and was able to establish rights to his machine. In the decade when Eli had financial troubles he started to manufacture and sell small arms to earn money to rebuild his fortune and saving his reputation. On June 14, 1798 Eli made a contract with the federal government and made a promise to the that he would deliver 4,000 arm by September 1799 and 6,000 more a year later. Eli had no idea how to make the guns he had no factory and no one to help him and so manufacture in quantity the simple cotton gin. What had persuaded Eli to sign the contract was that the government agreed to give him $5,000 in