he spaces in the grooves between the column-rules are
accurately fitted with sliding blocks of metal even with the surface of
the bed, the ends of the blocks being cut away underneath to receive a
projection on the sides of the tongues of the column-rules. The form of
type is locked up in the bed by means of screws at the foot and sides,
by which the type is held as securely as in the ordinary manner upon a
flat bed, if not even more so. The speed of the machine is limited only
by the ability of the feeders to supply the sheets. Twenty-five hundred
is about as many as a man can supply in an hour, and multiplying this by
ten--one man being at each cylinder--we have 25,000 sheets an hour as
the capacity of the press.

CHAPTER XIX.

SAMUEL COLT.

Samuel Colt was born at Hartford, Connecticut, on the 19th of July,
1814. He was descended from one of the original settlers of that city,
and his father, who possessed some means, was a man of great energy,
intelligence, and enterprise. The senior Colt began life as a merchant,
and afterward became a manufacturer of woolen, cotton, and silk goods.
The mother of our hero was the daughter of Major John Caldwell, a
prominent banker of Hartford, and is said to have been a woman of
superior character and fine mental attainments.

It was within the power of the parents of Samuel Colt to give him a
thorough education, and this they were anxious to do; but he was always
so full of restless energy that he greatly preferred working in the
factory to going to school. He loved to be where he could hear the busy
looms at work, and see the play of the intricate machinery in the great
building. In order to gratify him, his father placed him in his factory
at the age of ten years, and there he remained for about three years,
leaving it only at rare intervals and for short periods of time, which
he passed in attendance upon school and working on a farm. When he was
thirteen his father declared that he would not permit him to grow up
without an education, and sent him to a boarding-school at Amherst,
Massachusetts. He did not remain there long, for the spirit of adventure
came over him with such force that he could not resist it. He ran away
from school and shipped as a boy before the mast on a vessel bound for
the East Indies. The ship was called the Coroo, and was commanded by
Captain Spaulding.

[Illustration: THE BOY COLT INVENTING THE REVOLVER.]

The voyage was long, and the la