America was a colony for almost as many years as it has been a nation. For its settlers, the lure was manifold: social betterment, economic opportunity, religious freedom, and political separation. Efforts to develop colonial manufactures were frowned on by Great Britain, for they posed the possibility of dangerous competition for Great Britain's early factories.
The Rhode Island System and the Waltham System
Great Britain sought to prevent the industrial revolution by prohibiting the sale of manufacturing equipment and the emigration of skilled labor to the United States. Cloth, the major industry at that time, was made in the home for home use, put out by various merchant under the domestic system, and occasionally made in small manufactories with hand looms.
The firm of Almy and Brown foresaw prospects in the more advance Arkwright machinery. Samuel Slater, an experience mechanic in Richard Arkwright's machine was induced to bring his technical knowledge by Almy and Brown. The result was the country's first technologically advanced textile mill at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1790. The Rhode Island System relied on a sole partnership as the form of ownership; spun fine yarn in the mill, but put out weaving to be done by families in the home, and it therefore resulted in more child labor. Slater exercised supervision of operation, assisted by his son, his brother and other relatives. By 1808, the United States have fifteen mills, and over half of them connected with Slater and his associates.
On a visit to British Isles in 1810-1812, Francis Cabot Lowell, a prominent merchant, carefully studied the textile industries of Lancashire and Scotland that was powered by waterwheels, rather than hand driven looms. Upon his return to Boston in 1813, he joined his brother-in-law, Patrick Tracy Jackson, and Nathan Appleton to found The Boston Manufacturing Company of Waltham Massachusetts. Waltham system used joint stock companies and the corporate form of ownership; integrated spinning and weaving to manufacture goods, hired nonfamily supervisors and managers; and relied on adult female labor by establishing company boarding house. Workers in the Waltham system were mainly young women, they were brought by agents who toured the countryside and emphasized the moral and educational advantages of factory work. Their morale conduct was carefully watched by a housemother. These treatments were praised by Charles Dickens, who reported that the workers were clean, healthy, and sound morale deportment. By 1816, Waltham system became the dominant method of textile manufacturing.
In 1827, Slater started to use steam driven power looms at his steam cotton manufacturing company in Providence, Rhode Island, and he was able to regulate production and employment. The introduction of steam powered looms has made Slater's factories rely increasingly on adult factory labor. He also began to integrate the manufacturing operations to spin, weave, and finish cloth. In 1835, he ran out of relatives and began to hire professional managers. Slater also pioneered the use of factory ledger to determine the cost of producing a yard of cloth. He moving forward to establish sales operation in New York and backward by employing individuals to purchase the raw materials needed.
The textile mills provide some early ideas on organization and management as well as personnel policies. Slater and Lowell employed salaried managers and created an intermediate level of management. A mill manager was often assisted by a superintendent, a technically trained man. Machinist, woodworkers, and other technically competent person was hired to overseas the repairs. Because of that, supervisors did not need both technical and managerial ability and could always rely on specialists.
The U.S. worker was also less resistant to the introduction of machinery, compare to British worker. Labor union and striking were not considered as illegal, as in Great Britain.
The American System of Manufactures
The American System of Manufactures was born in armaments industry. In 1795, The Springfield Armory was established as central workshop to produce armaments in United States. In 1815, Colonel established definite areas of responsibilities. An accounting system was developed for wage payments and to control the time spent by workers and the material used. The specialization of labor also increased, and as a result the Springfield armory has one hundred different occupation specialties, by 1825. The arms were made by specialists using new metalworking machines, tools, and gauges to measure the accuracy of parts, thus, increased their interchangeability. Colonel Lee also tightened discipline by prohibiting playing in the shops, wanton destruction of government property, noise, etc.
The Springfield Armory provides us with a better prototype of a modern factory than the textile mills. Before 1835 the U.S. manufacturing was characterized by family run, water powered organization. The principles of manufacturing pioneered at the Springfield Armory, has made U.S. entrepreneurs unleashed a host of products that would revolutionize industry during 1840-1850. Although the mass production had not yet been perfected, its antecedents were present.
