<P> Modern industry first appeared in textiles, including cotton and especially silk, which was based in home workshops in rural areas . </P> <P> During the late 18th an early 19th centuries when the UK and parts of Western Europe began to industrialise, the US was primarily an agricultural and natural resource producing and processing economy . The building of roads and canals, the introduction of steamboats and the building of railroads were important for handling agricultural and natural resource products in the large and sparsely populated country of the period . </P> <P> Important American technological contributions during the period of the Industrial Revolution were the cotton gin and the development of a system for making interchangeable parts, the latter aided by the development of the milling machine in the US . The development of machine tools and the system of interchangeable parts were the basis for the rise of the US as the world's leading industrial nation in the late 19th century . </P> <P> Oliver Evans invented an automated flour mill in the mid-1780s that used control mechanisms and conveyors so that no labour was needed from the time grain was loaded into the elevator buckets until flour was discharged into a wagon . This is considered to be the first modern materials handling system an important advance in the progress toward mass production . </P>

Important in facilitating the conversion of american industry to mass production was