A thermoplastic is a type of plastic made from polymer resins that becomes a homogenized liquid when heated and hard when cooled.
As similar as colonial iron manufacture was to that of medieval Europe, yet it differed greatly from the type of iron manufacture in eighteenth century early modern Europe. Existing conditions of natural resources greatly affected the development of technical innovation in the field of iron manufacture.
I would say that the first factory in the New World using contemporary European ideas of production was iron smelting/manufacture of simple iron products. The first smelters were in operation in the early 1600s shortly following the arrival of the first permanent English settlers in New England and Virginia.