Slater Mill

1. Slater Mill By John Turkington

2. A Taylor in Two Cities • Samuel Slater was a man who would bare many names in his time. Father of the American Industrial Revolution, Father of the American Factory System, and Slater the Traitor were just a few that were in the forefront of history. Samuel was born in England to a farming family of eight children. After his father had died he was indentured as a servant to JedediahStrutt in the cotton mills where he learned the British system of the textile industry. After hearing that America’s attempts at the cotton mills have failed, Samuel sailed over seas and gave Moses Brown the British mill designs. This lead to the future of the American textile industry and eventually the creation of towns such as Pawtucket Rhode Island and Waltham Massachusetts.

3. Slater vs. Lowell • Employed entire families for work • Ran business as a partnership • His family supervised the mill instead of paid overseers • Ran on water power • Had housing around the mill that encouraged civilizations to start around it • Focused on spinning cotton • Employed adult women to work • Women had to live in boarding houses owned by mill manager • Corporation, not a partnership • Ran on water power • Hired non relative supervisors to maintain control • Combined spinning and weaving cotton

4. Liquid Energy • The mill had was erected on the water front so the downward flow of the river would turn the water wheel and power the machines inside. • Dams were constructed to control the amount of water allowed to power the machines and give the workers a better grasp on how fast each contraption would run.

5. Production Process • The water power animated the wooden machines • The cotton-gin removed seeds from cotton • The cotton was then spun into thread and sent to the additional mechanisms

6. Production Process • The thread was then placed onto bobbins • A spinning reel would wind the thread onto skeins for distribution • Various ropes, clothes and cords were spun and sold to companies and communities

7. Experience • The experience I had while touring the Slater Mill was a unique and unparalleled experience. Even though I had learned much about the textile business and life in that era during class, the mill itself had given me a perspective I had not been able to imagine before. The heat that dwelled in the shop, the stagnant air with flying wisps of cotton had me feeling as though I was back in the production days myself. I am personally impressed on how the technology that was used had been imagined, then created for a time period with such dark-aged principals of management and production. The structure of their administration still surprises me, but after my visit I have gained a better understanding of why they had managed their employees the way they did and the outcomes of continued experiences with work that increased their knowledge on the best way to manage their business and create a sustainable environment for their workers.