Editing Industrial Revolution (section)

===United States===
{{Main|Industrial Revolution in the United States}}
{{See also|American system of manufacturing|Interchangeable parts|Economic history of the United States|Technological and industrial history of the United States}}
[[File:SlaterMill.JPG|thumb|Slater's Mill in [[Pawtucket, Rhode Island]]]]
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries when Western Europe began to industrialise, the US was primarily an agricultural and natural resource producing and processing economy.<ref>
{{cite book |title      = A New Economic View of American History
 |last1      = Atack
 |first1     = Jeremy
 |last2      = Passell
 |first2     = Peter
 |year       = 1994
 |publisher  = W.W. Norton and Co.
 |location   = New York
 |isbn       = 978-0-393-96315-1
 |page       = [https://archive.org/details/neweconomicviewo00atac/page/469 469]
 |url        = https://archive.org/details/neweconomicviewo00atac/page/469
}}</ref> The building of roads and canals, the introduction of steamboats and the building of railroads were important for handling agricultural and natural resource products in the large and sparsely populated country.<ref>
{{cite book |title      = The Visible Hand: The Management Revolution in American Business
 |last       = Chandler
 |first      = Alfred D. Jr.
 |year       = 1993
 |publisher  = Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
 |isbn       = 978-0-674-94052-9
 |url        = https://archive.org/details/visiblehandmanag00chan
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|title=The Transportation Revolution, 1815–1860
 |last=Taylor
 |first= George Rogers
|year=1969
|publisher=M.E. Sharpe
 |isbn= 978-0-87332-101-3}}
</ref>

Important American technological contributions were the [[cotton gin]] and the development of a system for making [[interchangeable parts]], which was aided by the development of the [[milling (machining)|milling machine]] in the US. The development of machine tools and system of interchangeable parts was the basis for the rise of the US as the world's leading industrial nation in the late 19th century.

[[Oliver Evans]] invented an automated flour mill in the mid-1780s, that used [[process control|control mechanisms]] and conveyors so no labour was needed from when grain was loaded into the elevator buckets, until the flour was discharged into a wagon. This is considered to be the first modern [[Bulk material handling|materials handling system]], an important advance in the progress toward [[mass production]].<ref name="Hounshell-1984"/>

The US originally used horse-powered machinery for small-scale applications such as grain milling, but eventually switched to water power after textile factories began being built in the 1790s. As a result, industrialisation was concentrated in [[New England]] and the [[Northeastern United States]], which has fast-moving rivers. The newer water-powered production lines proved more economical than horse-drawn production. In the late 19th century steam-powered manufacturing overtook water-powered manufacturing, allowing the industry to spread to the Midwest.

[[Thomas Somers (investor)|Thomas Somers]] and the [[Cabot Brothers]] founded the [[Beverly Cotton Manufactory]] in 1787, the first cotton mill in America, the largest cotton mill of its era,<ref name="manufacturers"/> and a significant milestone in the research and development of cotton mills. This mill was designed to use horsepower, but the operators quickly learned that the horse-drawn platform was economically unstable, and had losses for years. Despite this, the Manufactory served as a playground of innovation, both in turning a large amount of cotton, but also developing the water-powered milling structure used in Slater's Mill.<ref name="publication"/>

In 1793, [[Samuel Slater]] (1768–1835) founded the [[Slater Mill]] at [[Pawtucket, Rhode Island]]. He had learned of the new textile technologies as a boy apprentice in [[Derbyshire]], England, and defied laws against the emigration of skilled workers by leaving for New York in 1789, hoping to make money with his knowledge. After founding Slater's Mill, he went on to own 13 textile mills.<ref name="britannica8"/> [[Daniel Day (manufacturer)|Daniel Day]] established a wool carding mill in the [[Blackstone Valley]] at [[Uxbridge, Massachusetts]] in 1809, the third woollen mill established in the US. The [[Blackstone Valley]] National Heritage Corridor retraces the history of "America's Hardest-Working River', [[Blackstone River]], which, with its tributaries, cover more than {{convert|45|mi|km|-1|order=flip}}. At its peak over 1,100 mills operated in this valley, including Slater's Mill.

[[Francis Cabot Lowell (businessman)|Merchant Francis Cabot Lowell]] from [[Newburyport, Massachusetts]], memorised the design of textile machines on his tour of British factories in 1810. The [[War of 1812]] ruined his import business but realising demand for domestic-finished cloth was emerging in America, on his return he set up the [[Boston Manufacturing Company]]. Lowell and his partners built America's second cotton-to-cloth textile mill at [[Waltham, Massachusetts]], second to the [[Beverly Cotton Manufactory]]. After his death in 1817, his associates built America's first planned factory town, which they named after him. This enterprise was capitalised in a [[Initial public offering|public stock offering]], one of the first uses of it in the US. [[Lowell, Massachusetts]], using {{convert|5+1/2|mi|km|order=flip|0|abbr=off|spell=in}} of canals and {{convert|10000|hp|kW|order=flip|abbr=off}} delivered by the [[Merrimack River]]. The short-lived utopia-like [[Waltham-Lowell system]] was formed, as a direct response to the poor working conditions in Britain. However, by 1850, especially following the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine of Ireland]], the system had been replaced by poor immigrant labour.

A major U.S. contribution to industrialisation was the development of techniques to make [[interchangeable parts]] from metal. Precision metal machining techniques were developed by the U.S. Department of War to make interchangeable parts for firearms. Techniques included using fixtures to hold the parts in the proper position, jigs to guide the cutting tools and precision blocks and gauges to measure the accuracy. The [[milling machine]], a fundamental machine tool, is believed to have been invented by [[Eli Whitney]], who was a government contractor who built firearms as part of this program. Another important invention was the Blanchard lathe, invented by [[Thomas Blanchard (inventor)|Thomas Blanchard]]. The Blanchard lathe was actually a shaper that could produce copies of wooden gun stocks. The use of machinery and the techniques for producing standardised and interchangeable parts became known as the [[American system of manufacturing]].<ref name="Hounshell-1984"/>

Precision manufacturing techniques made it possible to build machines that mechanised the shoe and watch industries.<ref name = "Thomson 1989">{{cite book |title      = The Path to Mechanized Shoe Production in the United States
 |last       = Thomson
 |first      = Ross
 |year       = 1989
 |publisher  = The University of North Carolina Press
 |location   = Chapel Hill and London
 |isbn       = 978-0-8078-1867-1
 |url        = https://archive.org/details/pathtomechanized00thom
}}</ref> The industrialisation of the watch industry started in 1854 also in Waltham, Massachusetts, at the [[Waltham Watch Company]], with the development of machine tools, gauges and assembling methods adapted to the micro precision required for watches.