1/13/2024 0 Comments Lowell factory town videoDuring construction, Slater made some adjustments to the designs to fit local needs. He also had the experience of working with all the elements as a continuous production system. Slater knew the secret of Arkwright's success-namely, that account had to be taken of varying fiber lengths-but he also understood Arkwright's carding, drawing, and roving machines. In 1793, Slater and Brown opened their first factory in Pawtucket. By 1791, Slater had some machinery in operation, despite shortages of tools and skilled mechanics. By December, the shop was operational with ten to twelve workers. Their deal provided Slater the funds to build the water frames and associated machinery, with a half share in their capital value and the profits derived from them. He promised: "If I do not make a good yarn, as they do in England, I will have nothing for my services but will throw the whole of what I have attempted over the bridge." In 1790, he signed a contract with Brown to replicate the British designs. Slater realized that nothing could be done with the machinery as it stood and convinced Brown of his knowledge. At this point, Slater wrote to them, offering his services. In August, they acquired a 32-spindle frame "after the Arkwright pattern" but could not operate it. They planned to manufacture cloth for sale, with yarn to be spun on spinning wheels, jennies, and frames, using water power. Almy & Brown, as the company was to be called, was housed in a former fulling mill near the Pawtucket Falls of the Blackstone River. In 1789, Rhode Island-based industrialist Moses Brown moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island to operate a mill in partnership with his son-in-law William Almy and cousin Smith-Brown. Some people of Belper called him "Slater the Traitor", as they considered his move a betrayal of the town where many earned their living at Strutt's mills. He, therefore, memorized as much as he could and departed for New York in 1789. He learned of the American interest in developing similar machines, and he was also aware of British law against exporting the designs. Slater was well trained by Strutt and, by age 21, he had gained a thorough knowledge of the organization and practice of cotton spinning. In 1782, his father died, and his family indentured Samuel as an apprentice to Strutt. ![]() At age ten, he began work at the cotton mill opened that year by Jedediah Strutt using the water frame pioneered by Richard Arkwright at nearby Cromford Mill. He received a basic education, perhaps at a school run by Thomas Jackson. Slater was born in Belper, Derbyshire, England, to William and Elizabeth Slater, on June 9, 1768, the fifth son in a farming family of eight children. He eventually owned 13 spinning mills and had developed tenant farms and company towns around his textile mills, such as Slatersville, Rhode Island. and later went into business for himself, developing a family business with his sons. ![]() Slater designed the first textile mills in the U.S. He stole the textile factory machinery designs as an apprentice to a pioneer in the British industry before migrating to the U.S. In the United Kingdom, he was called "Slater the Traitor" and "Sam the Slate" because he brought British textile technology to the United States, modifying it for American use. Samuel Slater (J– April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution", a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson, and the "Father of the American Factory System".
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