Slater Mill - MuseumVisitMGT336

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.