Francis Cabot Lowell's Impact On The Industrial Revolution

Francis Cabot Lowell, like Slater, had a great memory and he memorized designs of important textiles. He travelled to England for 2 years, from 1810 to 1812, and memorized the power loom in detail. He brought his knowledge of power looms back to America and invented a new textile machine. He created the first textile mill in 1814 in Waltham, Massachusetts called the Boston Manufacturing Company. The entire cotton manufacturing production happened in this one building. Raw cotton was spun, dyed, and woven into finished cloth much faster and less expensive because workers did not have to move cotton from place to place. This production method was first called the Waltham system but they later changed the name to the Lowell system. This

The first was the development of coal and the second was transportation. Coal was the primary fuel of the Revolution and was used for many things. Furnaces used coal to turn iron ore into steel; steel was needed to build railroads to move products fast and easy; and coal was used to build canals so boats could move products. Textiles, mills, and other industries needed fuel to operate. Coal Miners dug 550 million tons of coal a year. There was an abundant supply of coal in Pennsylvania, so the industries grew the fastest in this area. The U.S. became the largest coal producer in the world.

(Hillstrom, The Industrial Revolution in America: Mining and Petroleum. Pages 1-8; Andrews, http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/beyond-the-textbook/23923; Housel, Page 8). Transportation also had a tremendous impact on the Industrial Revolution. There were 3 main ways to travel - roads, water, and railroads. The first road was built 1802 and was named the National Road. Roads took a long time to build, were expensive, and crowded with wagons and stagecoaches but they helped the settlers move west. Automobiles eventually replaced wagons. The first successful gas-powered automobile was invented by Elwood Haynes. (McDaniels, Pages 30-31; Hillstrom, The Industrial Revolution in America: Automobiles, Page

They also helped cities grow as industries began building near the water. New York shipped a lot of products using waterways because the Atlantic Ocean was connected to the Hudson River and boats could carry loads of goods up the river. Canals were also built to