A plaque on the wall at the entrance to the Wilkinson Mill reads as follows:
National Historic
Mechanical Engineering Landmark
Wilkinson Mill
1810
Site of the Shop of
David Wilkinson (1771-1852)
Father of
The American Machine Tool Industry
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers - 1977
From American Society of Mechanical Engineers website:
The Wilkinson Mill, situated on the west bank of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, was built between 1810 and 1811 by machinist Oziel Wilkinson. Constructed in stone rubble, three and one-half stories high, the mill played a critical role in the history of textile technology, in steam power generation, and in the development of the machine tools industry.
The Wilkinson family came to Pawtucket in the 1780s and set up a shop to forge anchors, build presses for oil works, and mold iron screws used in paper pressing machinery. When Samuel Slater built the first successful water-powered textile machinery, David Wilkinson cast the first carding and spinning machines and soon became known as a master machinist. He developed a screw cutting machine, which he modified in 1806 for general industrial work, and a power loom that dominated power weaving in New England for much of the nineteenth century.
Wilkinson set up the machinery for one of the first worsted factories in the United States with William Wilson Wood and trained machinists such as Ira Gay, Larned Pitcher, James Brown (self-actor mule), John Thorp (system of ring spinning), and Asa Arnold (differential gearing for roving frames).
From Wikipedia:
David Wilkinson (January 5, 1771 - February 3, 1852) was a U.S. mechanical engineer who invented a lathe for cutting screw threads, which was an extremely important development in the development of the machine tool industry in the early 19th century.
Wilkinson Mill
In 1810, the present-day Wilkinson Mill was built near their existing rolling and slitting mill and Slater's cotton mill. Three and one-half stories tall and constructed from field stones, and contained a machine shop on the first floor.
In 1829, during a depression in the textile industry, David Wilkinson was forced to sell the mill and leave the business. He eventually left Rhode Island. In 1831 the mill was sold to William Field and Thomas LeFavour. The mill would later be used to produce woolen and knitted textiles. Between 1873 and 1887 Lorenzo P. Bosworth operated a machine shop in the mill. He produced machinery and tools for the leather and jewerly industries. A braiding company would occupy the second and third floors between 1884 and 1901.
The Wilkinson Mill was later sold to the Pawtucket Electric Lighting Company. It was also used as a furniture warehouse during the 20th century.
Legacy
The Wilkinson Mill was restored in the early 1970s as part of the Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
In 1977, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) designated the Wilkinson Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.