New Inventions
In the early 19th century, many mills were created in locations such as Merrimac River in Manchester, New Hampshire, in Lowell, & Lawrence, Massachusetts, and along the Connecticut River. Around 1813, 76 cotton mills were operating within a 30-mile radius of Providence, Rhode Island. Textiles, mainly cotton became the primary factory-made goods in the early nineteenth century. By 1820, cotton was nearly 50 percent of the of United States exports Along with this crop production, Eli Whitney also began manufacturing muskets. He had created firearms with interchangeable parts which allowed more muskets to be produced in a shorter amount of time. (As opposed to individually created by a gunsmith.
Water Power
New technology advances in the United States enormously involved the use of water power rather than steam to run their machinery. The Merrimack site was a great location to establish a factory. Merrimack was very close to the Pawtucket Falls. In 1822 the construction of a power canal system began. It became one of the biggest of its kind in the world. The construction was completed in 1823 and Lowell became the nation's leading producer of textiles. Water power-driven mills lead to the first large scale factories in America. Though this was a great innovation, it had it's negatives. Factory owners depended largely on the rain fall, and the rise and drop of the water levels of the rivers it was built next to. Also, rivers had possibilities of freezing during the winter times, which would drop the production of textiles or any specific material they are making. The link below is a bit of background information on Massachusetts.
Steam Power
Water power was the cheapest and probably most powerful sources to power machines and mills, it forced factories to be built near rivers and large water sources. This was a huge disadvantage to progress into industrialization. The solution to this issue was steam power. Steam power allowed factories to be built anywhere on land and it would still operate due to its composition of a steam powered engines. This source of energy involved a system of rods, gears, and belts to the separate parts in the factory. Later on, towards 1875, factories used more steam power than they did water power.