The American Industrial Revolution included many different inventions as well as new techniques for manufacturing and business. Before and at the beginning of the revolution the Household system was consistently used. However, as the revolution progressed workers and their machinery moved from individual homes into one large building. This movement is what began the idea of the factory system.
In 1790, Samuel Slater started the first efficient factory in America. In this factory, he began to spin cotton thread by machine. That same year John Fitch built and operated the world's first regularly scheduled steamboat. Three years later Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which would have extraordinary effects on the south and their social and economical lives. In 1800, Eli Whitney came up with the idea of interchangeable parts. This would make the assembly-line system a lot more efficient.
Banks were of extreme importance in the American Industrial Revolution. They provided small businesses with credit so that they could get started. When the factories began about nine children would staff the machines, because the work was quite easy. Francis Cabot Lowell developed a new technique called the Waltham system. Here young unmarried women were the factory workers. These ladies would stay in boardinghouses and live under strict discipline. Lowell had smuggled plans for a power loom into America from Great Britain. This also helped in the efficiency of his factories.
In the early 1800's, several technological advances were being made. Slowly each industry became increasingly advanced. The woolen industry became just as mechanized as the cotton industry had become. Next in 1810, the iron industry advanced out of blacksmith's forges into machine based factories. These machines could make nails at a third of the cost of the earlier techniques. A couple of year's later rolling mills were invented to produce sheet iron.
