The Story of Samuel Slater

After reading about the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th century, I was curious as to how it began.

Samuel Slater is known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" because he brought much of the early 19th century technology to the United States, and created some of the first American factories and mills.

During the 1800s, England had many emigration laws that prevented scientists and engineers from sharing their technological secrets with other parts of the world. Every attempt that had been made towards smuggling English technology to the United States had failed. However, instead of trying to bring actual inventions, documents, or manuals to the united states, Samuel Slater memorized how mills were built, and essentially sold this knowledge to the Americans once he reached New York. He created the first cotton mill in America, and although at first it struggled to turn a profit at first, after incorporating other revolutionary technologies the mill became a huge success.