Samuel Slater was born in Belper, Derbyshire, in 1768. Apprenticed to Jerediah Strutt he gained a detailed knowledge of the latest textile machinery.

The British government passed legislation making it illegal for textile machinery to be exported. Skilled engineers will also forbidden to leave the country but Slater, using a false name, emigrated to the United States in 1789.

Slater had a photographic memory and he soon got to work building the latest textile machines. In 1793 he helped establish America's first cotton factory at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It was a great success and Samuel Slater was a wealthy man when he died in 1835.