4. The Power Loom and Lowell: Textiles and Industrialization

Question 1

Tech Transfer to U.S. - “homespun” to textiles

Answer 1

• Gov’t role
• Samuel Slater
  > Spinning
• Francis Cabot Lowell
  > Power loom
  > Vertical Integration
• Labor Systems

Question 2

Samuel Slater

Answer 2

- set up the first spinning mill factory in Rhode Island
   > producing yarn not cloth
- workers:
   > women
   > children between 7-12 years old
   > typically employed 30-80 people
- worked in the same place
- piecework
- "The Slater System"
- Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812 helped boost the American textile industry

Question 3

Piecework

Answer 3

splitting the creation of something and having people work on pieces of the product

Question 4

“The Slater System”

Answer 4

• patriarchal system

- fathers and children are working and the women are cooking, cleaning, etc. in the home

Question 5

Francis Cabot Lowell

Answer 5

• From Massachusetts
• gets several power looms from Britain
  > brings the power looms back to the U.S.