"If thou canst do what
thou sayest," wrote Brown, "I invite thee to come to Rhode
Island."
Arriving in Pawtucket in January, 1790, Slater pronounced the
machines worthless, but convinced Almy and Brown that he knew his
business, and they took him into partnership. He had no drawings
or models of the English machinery, except such as were in his
head, but he proceeded to build machines, doing much of the work
himself. On December 20, 1790, he had ready carding, drawing, and
roving machines and seventy-two spindles in two frames. The
water-wheel of an old fulling mill furnished the power--and the
machinery ran.
Here then was the birth of the spinning industry in the United
States. The "Old Factory," as it was to be called for nearly a
hundred years, was built at Pawtucket in 1793. Five years later
Slater and others built a second mill, and in 1806, after Slater
had brought out his brother to share his prosperity, he built
another. Workmen came to work for him solely to learn his
machines, and then left him to set up for themselves. The
knowledge he had brought soon became widespread. Mills were built
not only in New England but in other States. In 1809 there were
sixty-two spinning mills in operation in the country, with
thirty-one thousand spindles; twenty-five more mills were
building or projected, and the industry was firmly established in
the United States.
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