A brief history of manufacturing

- I'm here in the birthplace the first factory in the United States, Slater Mill, on the mighty Blackstone River where Samuel Slater in 1793, built the machines Work that previously required lots of skill, lots of time, and is very expensive. When this factory was built, these machines all around me, allowed a small number of laborers to create vast quantities of material from scratch, that previously required lots of skilled labor. This factory was built using money from the equivalent of venture capitalists in 1700. People who were willing to take a big risk in society. in the United States. This disruptive innovation from Samuel Slater, was not unlike disruptive innovations today. Like some modern Silicon Valley startups, Samuel Slater disruptive innovation was not without its controversies. First of all, Samuel Slater was a British immigrant who memorized the plans for Britain's automated factories. He then illegally traveled to the United States bringing with him those stolen plans. Secondly, his financial backers had made all their money in the slave trade. And finally, his factory system made it easy enough for children to do the work that was previously done by skilled laborers, so of course, he hired children and paid them low wages to work in his mills. The industrial revolution in America and abroad No longer were skilled craftspeople making objects one off and by hand. Instead, those craftspeople were designing the tools that make many many copies of a particular object or product. While this did displace many workers, who were previously craftsmen or women, making those objects, it also introduced new jobs making those objects, it also introduced new jobs for machine designers, machine maintenance workers for machine designers, machine maintenance workers and industrial designers who created the objects from manufacturing in the first place. Manufacturing has evolved considerably since those early days. since those early days. Machines are more sophisticated, more powerful, Machines are more sophisticated, more powerful, and the possibilities of what we can create with our minds are almost endless. And in this course, I'm going to take you through the world And in this course, I'm going to take you through the world of modern manufacturing. (dramatic music) (dramatic music)