Industrial Revolution - Inventions2

Page
3

Slide 17

The Textile Industry and British Competition

British textile manufacturers were particularly worried about American competition; Britain prohibited the export of textile machinery and the emigration of mechanics who knew how to build it, but many mechanics disguised themselves as ordinary laborers and set sail.

Samuel Slater brought to America a design for an advanced cotton spinner; the opening of his factory in 1790 marked the advent of the American Industrial Revolution.

Slide 18

The Americans' only advantage early in the nineteenth century was having abundant raw materials such as cotton. The British had cheaper labor, lower interest rates, and less-expensive shipping than the United States and used them effectively to keep prices lower than the prices of their American rivals.

Slide 19

Samuel Slater is a major figure in American history and has been called both the "Father of American Industry" and the "Founder of the American Industrial Revolution."

Slide 20

Slide 21

Congress passed protective legislation in 1816 and 1824 levying high taxes on imported goods; tariffs were reduced again in 1833, and some textile firms went out of business.

American producers used two other strategies to compete with their British rivals. First, they improved on British technology, and second, they found less expensive workers.

By copying the machines of British textile mills, Francis Cabot Lowell’s Boston Manufacturing

Company was able to build the Waltham factory, the first American factory to perform all the operations of cloth making under one roof at higher speeds than British mills and with fewer workers.

Slide 22

Slide 23

The Boston Manufacturing Company pioneered a labor system that became known as the “Waltham plan,” in which the company recruited farm women and girls as textile workers who would work for low wages.

By the early 1830s, more than 40,000 New England women worked in textile mills; women often found this work oppressive, but many gained a new sense of freedom and autonomy.

By combining improved technology, female labor, and tariff protection, the Boston Manufacturing Company sold textiles more cheaply than did the British.

Slide 24