What person built a factory in America from memory of factories in England?

What person built a factory in America from memory of factories in England?

• A. Eli Whitney
• B. Samuel Slater
• C. Thomas Edison
• D. Robert Fulton

Answer: (B)

Transferring industrial know-how from Britain to the United States happened through people who could recreate the machines they had seen. Samuel Slater did exactly that: as a worker scheming at a British textile mill, he memorized how the spinning machinery worked and then brought that knowledge to America. He used it to build the first successful water-powered cotton-spinning factory in Rhode Island, launching the American factory system in textiles. This moment shows how Britain’s early industrial techniques spread across the Atlantic and were put to work in a new country. The other figures contributed in different ways. Eli Whitney is famous for the cotton gin and for bringing standardized parts into manufacturing, not for copying English mill designs. Thomas Edison and Robert Fulton are linked to electric light and the steamboat, respectively, rather than the spread of British textile factory methods.

Transferring industrial know-how from Britain to the United States happened through people who could recreate the machines they had seen. Samuel Slater did exactly that: as a worker scheming at a British textile mill, he memorized how the spinning machinery worked and then brought that knowledge to America. He used it to build the first successful water-powered cotton-spinning factory in Rhode Island, launching the American factory system in textiles. This moment shows how Britain’s early industrial techniques spread across the Atlantic and were put to work in a new country.

The other figures contributed in different ways. Eli Whitney is famous for the cotton gin and for bringing standardized parts into manufacturing, not for copying English mill designs. Thomas Edison and Robert Fulton are linked to electric light and the steamboat, respectively, rather than the spread of British textile factory methods.