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By 1793, in Pawtucket, he built what became the first successful textile mill in the United States that was powered by water. Slater’s factory was a huge success. Before long,
other American manufacturers began using his ideas.

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In 1798, Eli Whitney began producing muskets in the first factory to rely on interchangeable parts. The idea of interchangeable parts spread rapidly. Inventors designed machines to produce interchangeable parts for clocks, locks and many other goods. With such machines, small workshops grew.

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In the 1800s, farm children also worked hard. Most people did not see much difference between children working in a factory or on a farm. Often, a child’s wages were needed to help support the family. Boys and girls as young as seven worked in factories. Small children were especially useful in textile mills because they could
squeeze around the large machines to change spindles.

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The Lowell Girls were young women ages 15-30 years old, who worked in the large cotton factories. Most of the women who came to Lowell were from farms and small villages. Some had labored in small textile mills. Others had produce cotton or woolen goods or shoes for merchants who employed men and women in their homes.

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In 1825, Jethro Wood began the manufacture of an iron with replaceable parts, but John Deere improved on the idea when he invented a lightweight steel plow. Earlier plows made of iron or wood had to be pulled by oxen, but they were strong but slow. A horse, less strong but faster than an ox, could pull a steel plow through a field more quickly.

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Philo Stewart developed a cast-iron stove small enough for
use in an average kitchen. His factory-built wood-burning stove was a great success. About 90,000 were sold. The cast-iron stove was only one sign of the way northern factories were changing the lives of ordinary people.

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The young women, and women like them in other
mill towns, made an important economic contribution to American society by providing labor for the Industrial Revolution. Most sent their wages home to their families. At first, parents hesitated to let their daughters work in the mills. To reassure parents, the company built boardinghouses, or buildings with many shared bedrooms and a kitchen that served meals. The company also made rules to protect the young women.

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Samuel F. B. made the telegraph, in 1844. The telegraph was a new technology that was made possible by scientific discoveries about electricity. Morse also devised a code of dots, dashes, and spaces so messages could be sent. This system of dots and dashes became known as the Morse code. The telegraph helped many businesses thrive. Merchants and farmers could have quick access to information about supply, demand, and prices of goods in different areas of the country. The availability of nearly instant information about markets changed the way goods were sold and contributed to the development of a nationwide market.

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In 1847, Cyrus McCormick opened a factory in Chicago that produced mechanical reapers. The reaper was a horse-drawn machine that cut and gathered wheat and other grains. McCormick’s reaper could do the work of five people using hand tools.

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Growing cities had numerous problems. Many of
these resulted from the human modification of the environment. Dirt and gravel streets turned into mud-holes when it rained. Cities had no sewers, and people threw garbage into the streets. Untreated sewage and garbage often seeped into wells or flowed into streams and rivers, polluting the water. The contaminated water spread
disease. Epidemics of cholera raged through cities, killing
thousands of people. Also, smoke and soot from burning coal seriously modified the environment, polluting the air and dirtying cities. It also caused health problems.