Regret to report the transcription contained errors. Not sure who made them first.
Samuel H Walker was killed in action in October 1847, not in 1848.
The 357 Magnum revolver cartridge came out in 1935 or so, not the 1950s.
Until then, the Walker revolver was the revolver producing the highest velocity. All earlier factory-loaded handgun cartridges produced lower velocities than either the Walker or the 357. But the Walker did not produce the most kinetic energy: its round lead ball was fired at some 1050 ft/sec, but the ball weighed only 138 grains so it developed only 337 foot-pounds of energy. The Walker did hold the record for velocity in handguns until Mauser introduced its C-96 “Broomhandle” auto pistol, with an uploaded version of Hugo Borchardt’s 7.63mm cartridge.
No US handgun produced a higher velocity until Colt’s itself brought out the 38 Super Auto in 1929.
Conical (pointed) bullets were never the preferred load for Walkers nor other Colt percussion guns; where ASJ dug up all the material on troopers loading conical bullets backwards, I’ve no idea. In his book Sixguns, first published in 1955, Elmer Keith recorded what a number of ACW veterans told him in person: that the round ball was preferred in the 1851 Navy, because it was a more effective man-stopper.
Walker Colts may have been marked “ADDRESS SAML COLT NEW_YORK CITY” but they weren’t made there: they were made at the Whitney factories in New Haven, CT.
Colt’s 1851 Navy, Baby Dragoon, 1849 Pocket, and the First, Second, and Third Dragoons were pretty much the same except for size and caliber, and were minor evolutions from the huge Walker. They came to market in 1848 through 1850, despite the different numbers.
Colt’s did not introduce truly different models until the Sidehammer of 1855, and the 1860 Army, which did indeed appear in 1860.
Yep, Eli Whitney made them for Colt, then passed the machinery on to Colt on completion of the contract. Colt could not make them as he had no machinery , being insolvent at the outset. I think Whitney made a few Walkers after the 1100 were delivered per Colt’s contract - it’s not clear whether those were “authorized” production.