page_title: Power loom
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Power loom / History
caption_attribution_description: Capture from Textile Mercury, a paper published by Marsden in Manchester in 1892. [1] This UK artistic work, of which the author is unknown and cannot be ascertained by reasonable enquiry, is in the public domain because it is one of the following: A photograph, which has never previously been made available to the public (e.g. by publication or display at an exhibition) and which was taken more than 70 years ago (before 1st January 1943); or A photograph, which was made available to the public (e.g. by publication or display at an exhibition) more than 70 years ago (before 1 January 1943); or An artistic work other than a photograph (e.g. a painting), which was made available to the public (e.g. by publication or display at an exhibition) more than 70 years ago (before 1 January 1943). &#160;This tag can be used only when the author cannot be ascertained by reasonable enquiry. If you wish to rely on it, please specify in the image description the research you have carried out to find who the author was. &#160;The above is all subject to any overriding Publication right which may exist. In practice, Publication right will often override the first of the bullet points listed. Unpublished anonymous paintings remain in copyright until at least 1 January 2040. This tag does not apply to engravings or musical works. More information. You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1923. Public domain works must be out of copyright in both the United States and in the source country of the work in order to be hosted on the Commons. If the work is not a U.S. work, the file must have an additional copyright tag indicating the copyright status in the source country.
context_page_description: A power loom is a mechanized loom, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough made the operation completely automatic.
  By the year 1850, there were 260,000 power looms in operation in England. Fifty years later came the Northrop loom which replenished the shuttle when it was empty. This replaced the Lancashire loom.
context_section_description: The first ideas for an automatic loom were developed in 1678 by M. de Gennes in Paris and by Vaucanson in 1745, but these designs were never developed and were forgotten.  In 1785 Edmund Cartwright patented a power loom. which used water power to speed up the weaving process, the predecessor to the modern power loom. His ideas were licensed first by Grimshaw of Manchester who built a small steam-powered weaving factory in Manchester in 1790, but the factory burnt down. Cartwright's was not a commercially successful machine; his looms had to be stopped to dress the warp. Over the next decades, Cartwright's ideas were modified into a reliable automatic loom.
  These designs preceded John Kay's invention of the flying shuttle and they passed the shuttle through the shed using levers. With the increased speed of weaving, weavers were able to use more thread than spinners could produce.
caption: A loom from the 1890s with a dobby head. Illustration from the Textile Mercury.
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