On April 13, 1844, Samuel Colt blew up a schooner on the Potomac River off the Washington (DC) Navy Yard to demonstrate the effectiveness of his invention, the underwater electric mine or submarine battery. Operated by electric current, the mine had already successfully been used to sink the gunboat Boxer and the brig Volta in 1842 but the demonstration held on April 13, 1844, was made expressly for President John Tyler and his cabinet. The introduction of an underwater mine operated by an electric current is a Connecticut first.
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