The
Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (
S.U.M.) or
Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures was a private state-sponsored corporation founded in 1791 to promote industrial development along the
Passaic River in
New Jersey in the
United States. The company's management of the
Great Falls of the Passaic River as a powersource for
grist mills resulted in the growth of
Paterson as one of the first industrial centers in the United States. Under the society's long-term management of the falls, the industrialization of the area passed through three great waves, centered first on
cotton, then
steel, and finally
silk, over the course of over 150 years. The venture is considered by historians to have been a forerunner for many
public–private partnerships in later decades in the United States.