Questions and Answers
What was the primary goal of merchants and factory owners in New England in the 1790s?
Who was contracted by a textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to build a yarn-spinning machine and a carding machine?
What was the significance of 1813 in the context of American industrial development?
How did Francis Cabot Lowell manage to smuggle England’s industrial know-how into New England?
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What was the origin of the powered loom that Francis Cabot Lowell and Paul Moody re-created?
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Why did British customs officials search Francis Cabot Lowell's luggage?
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Study Notes
Industrial Revolution in New England
- In the 1790s, New England merchants started experimenting with machines to replace the putting-out system.
- The transition relied on the theft of British technological knowledge to build the machines needed.
- In 1789, a textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, hired 21-year-old British immigrant Samuel Slater to build a yarn-spinning machine and a carding machine.
- Slater had apprenticed in an English mill and successfully mimicked the English machinery.
Industrial Espionage
- The peak of American industrial espionage was in 1813 when Francis Cabot Lowell and Paul Moody recreated the powered loom used in Manchester, England's mills.
- Lowell spent two years in Britain observing and touring English mills, committing the powered loom's design to memory.
- He smuggled England's industrial know-how into New England, evading British customs officials' searches of his luggage.
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Description
Learn about the early industrialization efforts in New England, including the theft of British technological knowledge and the role of Samuel Slater in building machines for textile mills.
