Abundant waterpower, a fine harbour, and a moist climate encouraged textile milling in the town as early as 1811, and by 1871 the city was a leading cotton-textile centre.
Beginning in the early 19th century, the village grew to become a major centre of cotton textile manufacturing, with an abundance of waterpower from the Merrimack's Pawtucket Falls (32 feet [10 metres]) and the completion of the Middlesex Canal link to Boston in 1803.
While the river remains an important source of waterpower, its valley has become a central artery for tourist travel to the vacation centres in the White Mountains.
Abundant waterpower and a rich hinterland (minerals, forests, and agriculture) encouraged growth as a trade and shipping point for an area (comprising eastern Washington, northern Idaho, northeastern Oregon, western Montana, and southern British Columbia) known as the "Inland Empire".
Considered as a resource, water and waterpower are also abundant, although supplies are rather unevenly distributed.
Arkwright's water frame (so-called because it operated by waterpower) produced a cotton yarn suitable for warp.
From about the beginning of the 20th century Norway's immense resources of waterpower provided a base for great industrial expansion.
Yorkshire entered the Industrial Revolution as a centre of woolen textile manufacturing in the towns of Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Wakefield, and Huddersfield, where rivers flowing from the Pennines provided both waterpower and a means of transport to the seaport of Kingston upon Hull.
Nearby is the Taylor Up-and-Down Up-and-Down Up-and-Down Sawmillterpower technology.
