business, and they took him into partnership. He had no drawings
or models of the English machinery, except such as were in his
head, but he proceeded to build machines, doing much of the work
himself. On December 20, 1790, he had ready carding, drawing, and
roving machines and seventy-two spindles in two frames. The
water-wheel of an old fulling mill furnished the power--and the
machinery ran.

Here then was the birth of the spinning industry in the United
States. The "Old Factory," as it was to be called for nearly a
hundred years, was built at Pawtucket in 1793. Five years later
Slater and others built a second mill, and in 1806, after Slater
had brought out his brother to share his prosperity, he built
another. Workmen came to work for him solely to learn his
machines, and then left him to set up for themselves. The
knowledge he had brought soon became widespread. Mills were built
not only in New England but in other States. In 1809 there were
sixty-two spinning mills in operation in the country, with
thirty-one thousand spindles; twenty-five more mills were
building or projected, and the industry was firmly established in
the United States. The yarn was sold to housewives for domestic
use or else to professional weavers who made cloth for sale. This
practice was continued for years, not only in New England, but
also in those other parts of the country where spinning machinery
had been introduced.

By 1810, however, commerce and the fisheries had produced
considerable fluid capital in New England which was seeking
profitable employment, especially as the Napoleonic Wars
interfered with American shipping; and since Whitney's gins in