During the late 1700s and early 1800s, two
mills had taken root in the small areas known as
Pawtucket Rhode Island, and Waltham
Massachusetts. The first was owned by Samuel
Slater whose mill used the power of a downward
flowing river to work the machines spinning
cotton. Slater used stolen knowledge from Britain
to open his mill in the US, reproducing the
technology he promised never to divulge. Two
decades later, Francis Cabot Lowell took the
textile industry even further by building his
factory in Waltham. Raw cotton entered one
end of the plant and emerged at the other end
as finished goods, also utilizing water power to
run the spinning contraptions. Other textile
operation would be modeled after the Lowell
mill, which brought New England's first factory
workers to manage their production. These
eager farmers helped spin North America into
the industrial revolution, with the guidance and
leadership of men like Samuel Slater.
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Born in 1768 being the fifth child of eight in Brittan.
At fourteen he was trained in the proper operation and management of the cotton
mills.
Sailed to New York with memorized blueprints of the mills after hearing how interested
America was in reproducing the spinning machines.
Slater worked with Moses Brown in Pawtucket recreating the mills from Brittan.
Slater used his British managerial experience which was eventually dubbed the “Rhode
Island System” to run the mill.
Eventually splitting from Brown and partnering with his father-in-law Oziel Wilkinson, he
erected other mills in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.
After holding part ownership of three mills and buying out a fourth, he formed a
partnership with his brother-in-law producing iron used in the creation of the mills
machines removing the need for a middle man purchase of that resource.
Unfortunately spreading himself too thin, his son remodeled the infrastructure of the
family business in 1829, making it one of the leading manufacturing companies in the
United States of its time.
Samuel Slater died in 1835 at the age of 66 with 13 mills under his ownership and was
labeled a millionaire. He became a rags to riches story with his original mill in Pawtucket
Rhode Island still serving as a museum and a memorial to his legacy.
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Went into Partnerships with various businessmen to build his
industrial empire.
Slater used the Rhode Island System to manage his mills.
The RI system involved hiring children from ages 7-12.
This turned into hiring entire families from surrounding farms
to work, eventually creating towns around the mills where
the farmers lived.
Spinning was done in the factories and some weaving was
done at the workers homes, known as the domestic
system.
Provided company-owned housing, stores, and a Sunday
school.
Discipline was supervised by Slater and his family while
relying on a system of fines as opposed to physical
punishment to keep his employees in line.
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Was made possible by the amount of production and
labor sources in early America due to the industrial
revolution.
Had much harsher punishments than fines.
While instead only hiring adult females, these workers were
required to live in the company boardinghouses, away
from their home other family members.
They were held to stern hours and a firm moral code
enforced by hired supervisors instead of family members of
the Rhode Island system.
The system eventually failed due to cheaper and less
organized foreign labor.
This new labor often lived in adjacent neighborhoods, off
company property, leading to the control of employees
more difficult.
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Slater and Lowell used
water wheels to power the
cotton mills.
Water managed to power
all cutting, sawing, and
drilling machines used
throughout the mills
A series of leather belts
were used transfer power
to various machines in the
mill. After new leather was
needed to replace the
belts, the mill owner often
donated the used leather
to the surrounding
community.
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Started using steam-driven
power looms.
Could regularize
production and
employment.
Used a factory ledger to
accumulate data to
determine the cost of
producing a yard of cloth.
Looms held almost triple
the amount of bobbins
than original machines.
Created a way to weave
thin string into an
overlapped cord.
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Rhode Island System
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Waltham-Lowell system
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Relied on sole
proprietorship or
partnership.
Spinning done in the mill
while weaving done at
working families homes.
Started with hand-driven
looms.
Exercised supervision of
operations assisted by his
own family members.
Relied on child labor in the
beginning, moving to
whole families as time past.
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Used joint-stock companies
and the corporate form of
ownership.
Used waterwheels to
power looms opposed to
hand-driven.
First to integrated spinning
and weaving.
Hired nonfamily supervisors
for their mills.
Relied on adult female
labor.
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The relationship between these two mills remains historic, and provides
insight on how different, yet similar management was in the early 1800s.
Slater was a stubborn man who did not like to change so easily. The
Waltham system became the dominant method of textile
manufacturing and he needed to progress with the times. He began to
use steam-driven power looms and started to integrate the
manufacturing operations to spin, weave, and finish cloth, ending the
putting-out system. From traveling inside the mill what I took with me the
most was how crowded it must have been and hot the summers were
with shut windows. It was not the technology, or ways of management
that stood out to me during this tour, since I have heard the majority of it
in class. It was walking through, and imagining the lives of these people,
from start to finish within the walls of that mill, and how difficult times
must have been.
Although the management styles and technology between these two
mills were different, both systems helped us create the style of
management we use today in businesses. The reasons for a failed style
such as the Waltham system, or evident out datedness of the Rhode
Island system shows the managers of today what works in organizations,
and what will lead to their downfall. Only after halfway through this
semester, I feel I have a better understanding of how we became to be
the leaders we are today, and discovered the men and women that
made it all possible.