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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Slater, Samuel 1768-1835 (search)
Slater, Samuel 1768-1835 Manufacturer; born in Belper, Derbyshire, England, June 9, 1768; was apprenticed to cotton-spinning under Strutt, partner of Sir Richard Arkwright, the inventor of spinning machinery. One of the first acts of the national Congress in 1789 was for the encouragement of American manufactures, and the legislature of Pennsylvania offered a bounty for the introduction of the Arkwright patents. Young Slater was a favorite of his master, aiding him, with his inventive genius, in making improvements in his mills. He heard of the action of the Pennsylvanians, and believed that his thorough mastery of Arkwright's machinery would enable him to build a machine without models or drawings. When his apprenticeship had ended he hastened to America with the treasures of his brain. He landed in New York in November, 1789. Heavy penalties deterred any one from making a model or drawing and sending it out of the country. Slater accidentally learned that Moses Brown,
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Steamboats, Hudson River (search)
ation by whom they were fostered, but that the statesman and philosopher might mark the influence of each upon the wealth, morals, and characters of mankind. Every one sees and acknowledges the changes that have been wrought by the improvements in agriculture and navigation, but seldom reflects on the extent to which apparently small discoveries have influenced not only the prosperity of the nation to which the invention owes its birth, but those with which it is remotely connected. When Arkwright invented his cotton-mills, the man would have been laughed at that ventured to predict that not only Great Britain would be many millions gainer annually by it, but that in consequence of it the waste lands of the Carolinas and Georgia would attain an incalculable value, and their planters vie in wealth with the nabobs of the East. A new art has sprung up among us, which promises to be attended with such important consequences that I doubt not, sirs, you will with pleasure make your usefu