The Wilkinson Mill

David Wilkinson, a blacksmith from Smithfield, Rhode Island, moved to Pawtucket in the early 1780s and became an important inventor and manufacturer. He demonstrated a steamboat in Pawtucket in 1792, 15 years before Robert Fulton's steamboat, developed a screw-cutting lathe in 1794 that became an industry standard, and by 1815 had produced some of the first power looms. Between 1810-11, Wilkinson and his father built this rubblestone mill, which housed a machine shop, a spinning mill, and a blacksmith shop. Wilkinson worked with Samuel Slater and produced equipment for dozens of other new factories.

Pawtucket, Rhode Island · United States