Textile fabrics
The difficulty of paying for imported goods in
Massachusetts, about 1640, stimulated the people to new kinds of industry.
Among other things, cotton and woollen cloths were manufactured.
The cultivation of hemp and flax was successfully undertaken.
Vessels were sent to the
West Indies for cotton.
and, at
Rowley, where a colony of
Yorkshire clothiers had recently settled, the fabrication of linen, woollen, and cotton cloth was set on foot.
The first cotton factory in the
United States was started in
Beverly, Mass., in 1789, by a company who only succeeded in
introducing that industry, with very imperfect machinery.
A woollen factory was in operation in
Hartford, Conn., in 1789, and in 1794 one was established in
Byfield, Mass. The same year a carding-machine for wool was first put into operation in the
United States.
It was constructed under the direction of John and
Arthur Schofield.
Samuel Slater (q. v.) may be considered the father of cotton manufacturing in the
United States.
But his operations were only in spinning the yarn.
It remained for a citizen of the United-States,
Francis C. Lowell, a merchant of
Boston, to introduce the weaving of cotton cloth here.
He invented a power loom, and in 1812 he and
Francis S. Jackson erected a mill in
Waltham, Mass. The machinery was constructed by
Paul Moody.
After many failures and alterations, they succeeded in perfecting looms that worked well, and in 1813 they had also a spinning-wheel, with 1,300 spindles.
Slater's
Rhode Island mill had then only 144 spindles.
See
cotton.
