There are important reserves of waterpower.
The use of waterpower also sharply reduced cost.
Industrial growth was spurred by the availability of waterpower; textiles (blankets), electronics, machinery, and plastics are important manufactures.
Subsequent growth was due to accessibility to other ports (especially Philadelphia, 25 miles [40 km] northeast), abundance of waterpower in nearby creeks, and the fertility of nearby farmlands.
From about the beginning of the 20th century Norway's immense resources of waterpower provided a base for great industrial expansion.
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.
The use of waterpower and then the steam engine to mechanize processes such as cloth weaving in England in the second half of the 18th century marked the beginning of the factory system.
The Industrial Revolution originated in Lancashire during the 18th century with the introduction of cotton manufacture, combining the use of waterpower, the mechanization of spinning, and the adoption of the factory system.
The major products of the communities in its drainage basin are pulp and paper (because of the abundance of waterpower, process water, and spruce-fir forests), textiles (in Lewiston, Maine), and shoes (in Auburn, Maine).
There, to take advantage of waterpower available from the falls of the Rhine, Héroult built his first aluminum-bronze production facility, which later became the Aluminium-Industrie-Aktien-Gesellschaft.
