The monks chose well-watered sites and used waterpower.
Other textile mills soon followed, using waterpower provided by the fast-flowing streams.
The Rothesay cotton-spinning mill, first of its kind to be erected in Scotland, used waterpower from nearby Loch Fad.
The use of waterpower also sharply reduced cost.
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 towns grew during the 19th century as the cotton textile industry developed, using first waterpower and later local coal.
Waterpower was used for grinding the beans.
The main cities along the river Concord, Manchester, and Nashua in New Hampshire, and Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill in Massachusetts—used the Merrimack's waterpower to produce a large portion of the textiles and hosiery made in New England from about 1850 to the 1930s.
However, by the beginning of the 15th century, waterpower was used to blow air into bloomery furnaces; as a consequence, the temperature in the furnace increased to above 1,200° C (2,200° F), so that, instead of forming a solid bloom of iron, a liquid was produced rich in carbon i.e., cast iron.
