Samuel Slater

Samuel Slater was an English-born textile engineer known as the father of the American Industrial Revolution. Having worked as an apprentice in Richard Arkwright's cotton-spinning mills in England, he emigrated to the United States in 1789, memorizing the designs of Arkwright's spinning machinery since export of the plans and skilled workers was then illegal, and in 1793 he built the Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the first successful water-powered cotton-spinning mill in the United States. His mill established the factory system of textile production in America and touched off the growth of New England's textile industry. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/