d was subjected to great hardships, which
soon convinced him that running away to sea was not as romantic in real
life as in the books he had read, but his experience, though
uncomfortable enough, failed to conquer his restless spirit. While at
sea in the Coroo he had an abundance of leisure time for reflection, but
instead of devoting it to meditating upon the folly of his course, he
spent it in inventing a revolving pistol, a rough model of which he cut
in wood with his jack-knife. This was the germ of the invention which
afterward gave him such fame, and it is not a little singular that the
conception of such a weapon should have come to a boy of fourteen.

Returning home, he became an apprentice in his father's factory at
Ware, Massachusetts. He was put into the dyeing and bleaching
department, and was thoroughly trained in it by Mr. William T. Smith, a
scientific man, and one of the best practical chemists in New England.
Young Holt manifested a remarkable aptitude for chemistry, and when but
a mere boy was known as one of the most successful and dexterous
manipulators in New England.

When he had reached his eighteenth year, the old spirit of restlessness
came over him again, and he embarked in an unusually bold undertaking
for one so young, in which, however, he was much favored by the
circumstance that he was very much older in appearance than in reality,
commonly passing for a full-grown man. Assuming the name of Dr. Coult,
he traveled throughout the Union and British America, visiting nearly
every town of two thousand inhabitants and over, lecturing upon
chemistry, and illustrating his lectures with a series of skillful and
highly popular experiments. His tour was entirely successful, and he
realized in the two years over which it extended quite a handsome sum.
The use which he made of the money thus acquired was characteristic of
the man.

He had never abandoned the design of a revolving pistol which he had
conceived on board the Coroo, and he now set to work to perfect it,
using the proceeds of his lectures to enable him to take out patents in
this country and in Europe. He spent two years in working on his model,
making improvements in it at every step, and by 1835 had brought it to
such a state of excellence that he was enabled to apply for a patent in
the United States. His application was successful. Before it was
decided, however, he visited England and France, and patented his
invention in those cou