The use of the term paramilitary is debated, with different people differently classifying groups as paramilitary or not based on disagreements about the definition.
Rhode Island Mill. With the support of a Quaker merchant, Moses Brown, Slater built America's first water-powered cotton spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. By the end of 1790, it was up and running, with workers walking a treadmill to generate power.
The Menlo Laboratory in Newark, New Jersey, was to become the first research and development lab in the world. In 1879, after 1,200 experiments, Edison made a light bulb using carbonized filaments from cotton that burned for two days.