Short answers, pulled from the story.
Samuel Slater opened his first spinning mill in Rhode Island during 1793. Moses Brown sponsored this venture with British immigrant expertise. Slater employed children between the ages of seven and twelve at the factory floor.
Francis Cabot Lowell established the Boston Manufacturing Company in Waltham, Massachusetts during 1814. Cotton-to-cloth production occurred under one roof for the first time in American history. Spinning, weaving, dyeing, and cutting processes finished inside a single plant building.
Young women from rural areas worked about eighty hours per week at the Waltham mills. Factory bells rang at four forty in the morning on six days each week. Workers reported to duty before five o clock every day.
By mid-century the Waltham-Lowell system proved unprofitable and collapsed completely. Cheaper and less organized foreign labor replaced the mill girls eventually. Mill owners recruited immigrants who often arrived with existing skills.
The Great Famine lasted between 1845 and 1852 affecting many families. Irish immigrants flocked to Massachusetts beginning in the mid-1840s fleeing famine. The proportion of male employment at the mill increased rapidly changing demographics.