now connected hundreds of power lines. The increase in manufacturing occurred so rapidly that there was no localized labor supply in the early 19th century that could have sufficed. Lowell solved this problem by hiring young women. Waltham After the successes of Samuel Slater, a group of investors now called The Boston Associates and led by Newburyport, Massachusetts merchant Francis Cabot Lowell devised a new textile operation on the Charles River in Waltham, Massachusetts, west of Boston. This new firm, the first in the nation to place cotton-to-cloth production under one roof, was incorporated as the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1814. The Boston Associates tried to create a controlled system of labor, unlike the harsh conditions they observed while in Lancashire, England. The owners recruited young New England farm girls from the surrounding area to work the machines at Waltham. The mill girls lived in company boarding houses and were subject to strict codes of conduct and supervised by older women. They worked about 80 hours per week. Six days per week, they woke to the factory bell at 4:40 am and reported to work at 5 am before a half-hour breakfast break at 7 am. They worked until a lunch break of 30 to 45 minutes around noon. The workers then returned to their company houses at 7 pm when the factory closed. This system became known as the Waltham System. Lowell While the Boston Manufacturing Company proved immensely profitable, the Charles River had very little potential as a power source. Francis Cabot Lowell died prematurely in 1817, and soon his partners traveled north of Boston to East Chelmsford, Massachusetts, where the large Merrimack River could provide far more power. The first mills, the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, were running by 1823. The settlement was incorporated as the town of Lowell in 1826, and became the city of Lowell ten years later. Boasting ten textile corporations, all running on the Waltham System and each considerably larger than the Boston Manufacturing Company, Lowell became one of the largest cities in New England and the model, now known as the Lowell System, was copied elsewhere in New England, often in other mill towns developed by the Boston Associates. Examples include Manchester, New Hampshire; Lewiston, Maine; Lawrence, Massachusetts; and Holyoke, Massachusetts. Decline Eventually, cheaper and less organized foreign labor replaced the mill girls. Even by the time of the founding of Lawrence in