Power loom

A loom driven by an external power source that interlaces warp and weft threads to make cloth faster than a hand-operated loom.

Loom: A device that interlaces lengthwise warp threads with crosswise weft threads to make fabric. The power loom mechanizes this broader class of weaving machines.
Industrial Revolution: A period of major economic and technological change beginning in Britain in the eighteenth century. The power loom became a defining machine of industrial textile production.
Cotton mill: A factory that processes cotton fiber into yarn or cloth using industrial machinery. Power looms concentrated cloth production in mechanized cotton mills.
Luddite movement: A British labor movement whose participants destroyed machinery amid conflicts over wages and working conditions. Some textile workers opposed power looms and related machinery that threatened customary livelihoods.
Shuttle: A weaving device that carries weft yarn across the warp threads. Powered mechanisms propel the shuttle repeatedly across the loom.
John Kay: An English inventor associated with the flying shuttle, patented in 1733. His shuttle increased weaving capacity and sharpened demand for faster looms.
Textile industry: The economic sector that produces fibers, yarns, fabrics, and textile goods. The power loom transformed one of this industry's central manufacturing stages.
Mechanization: The replacement or augmentation of human labor by machines in production. The power loom is a landmark instance of mechanizing skilled textile work.
Flying shuttle: A shuttle mechanism that uses a picker and race to carry weft rapidly across a wide loom. Its faster weft insertion became a key component in early power looms.
Edmund Cartwright: An English inventor who patented early power-loom designs in the 1780s. His experiments established the power loom as a practical mechanization project.

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