Chapter 3
From Farm to
Factory
From Farm to Factory
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American industrialization began between 1780 and
1820
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American merchants were familiar with early
industrialization in England
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They wanted the new nation to be able to compete
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American industry was unique, not a carbon copy of
British industry
Oliver Evans
❖
Oliver Evans was the son of a successful farmer
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Apprenticed to a wheelwright, he learned how to work
with wood and metal
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Evans mechanized the gristmill he and two brothers
bought from their father and increased his profit margin
❖
He licensed the technology to other mills, eventually
patented it
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Mechanization helped the milling industry grow
Oliver Evans’s Mill, 1795
Steam Engines and Machine Shops
❖
Evans experimented with steam engines in the 1780s
❖
Invented in England by James Watt, Evans wanted to
make them lighter, more useful for transportation
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Patented a high-pressure steam engine in 1804
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He built machine shops, hired and trained men to build
and work on his machines
❖
Decreased American dependence on British engineers
and machine shops
Norris Locomotive Works Foundry, c. 1850s
Eli Whitney
❖
Whitney invented the cotton gin; the first machine to
separate cotton fibers from seeds
❖
Whitney’s gin was simple to build, requiring only
carpentry skills
❖
Dozens of plantations copied his design before he could
get a patent
❖
Gins produced huge profits for southern plantations but
not for Whitney
The Armaments Industry and the American System of
Manufacture
❖
In 1798 Whitney signed a contract with the government
to mechanize the production of muskets
❖
Whitney (eventually) created machines that would
quickly create uniform parts for the guns
❖
This system of interchangeable parts became known as
the American system of manufacture
❖
Whitney never succeeded in creating interchangeable
parts for guns
Military and Industry
❖
The creation of the American system of manufacture was
driven by government funding
❖
The military wanted local sources of guns, cannon, and other
equipment that could be repaired on the battlefield
❖
Eventually, armories used specially built machines, division of
labor, and an unskilled workforce to build armaments
❖
Armory practice spread to civilian industries building things
like clocks and sewing machines
❖
This was the foundation of systems of mass production
Colt pistol boring machine, c. 1856-1864
Samuel Slater
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Slater was one of the first men to develop factories
❖
He emigrated from England and brought cotton
spinning inventions with him
❖
Built America’s first spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode
Island, in the 1790s
❖
Slater eventually built 13 mills and 2 machine shops,
and the factory system had supplanted the earlier
household manufacturing systems
Samuel Slater’s mill, c. 1836
The American Factory System
❖
Slater began the family labor system in his mills
❖
Provided housing, churches, schools, shops in mill villages
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Eventually replaced by the Lowell system which integrated
the production of cloth
❖
Mills were owned by corporations, which could grow easily
❖
Factory system quickly spread to other industries
❖
Eventually created a permanent industrial workforce,
which led to union organization by the 1830s
Time table for the
Lowell Mills, 1851
The Unique Character of American Industrialization
❖
Between 1780 and 1820 the United States went from
being a weak economy to having the potential for
economic strength
❖
By 1860 the United States was poised to surpass Britain
in manufacturing output
❖
Rapid technological development depended on
pioneers of industry