Hi!
I read somewhere that technology such as steam engines and cottom mills were considered state secrets or thereabouts back in England, the premise being that in theory England could industrialize and leave the rest of Europe behind.
Samuel Slater, however, supposedly memorized how to construct and organize a mill (having worked in them). With the plans memorized and no paper trail to follow, he secretly emigrated to the US and set up a mill there in 1793, starting the industrialization of America's fledgeling textile industry.
What would have happened had Slater never moved in the US, preferring instead to stay in England? Would the US start its industrial revolution later, if at all? Would it have been able to compete with the British and the rest of Europe?
I read somewhere that technology such as steam engines and cottom mills were considered state secrets or thereabouts back in England, the premise being that in theory England could industrialize and leave the rest of Europe behind.
Samuel Slater, however, supposedly memorized how to construct and organize a mill (having worked in them). With the plans memorized and no paper trail to follow, he secretly emigrated to the US and set up a mill there in 1793, starting the industrialization of America's fledgeling textile industry.
What would have happened had Slater never moved in the US, preferring instead to stay in England? Would the US start its industrial revolution later, if at all? Would it have been able to compete with the British and the rest of Europe?