THE WORLD'S FIRST INDUSTRIAL SPY

When Samuel Slater was born near Manchester in 1768, hardly anybody thought he would amount to anything. He took that astride and  began working in a mill at the age of fourteen. And he certainly was a hard worker, because he became a manager even before he turned twenty. Still, he did not delude himself that he could realize his dreams in class-ridden Britain where he was regarded as a commoner.

So, after six years of studying every aspect of cotton manufacture and memorizing details of the complicated spinning looms invented by Richard Arkwright in 1768, Slater decided to stake his future in the United States of America, where a man could pursue his dreams irrespective of his status. However, the authorities in Britain strictly prohibited the export of textile-related technology and the know-how. But Slater managed to circumvent them by slipping past British agents disguised as a farmer and sailing to America, where he decided to pursue his American Dream.

With barely enough to survive in America, Slater arrived in Rhode Island, and put his plans in motion. He created America's first advanced mill and established tenant farms and towns around his textile mills, such as Slatersville. "Slater system" mill villages soon spread across the state and into Connecticut. He died in 1835 as a multi-millionaire and the title of Father of the American Industrial Revolution.