Editing Loom (section)

====Figure harness and the drawloom====
{{anchor|Drawloom|Figure harness}}
[[File:高機模様裂-Textile fragment with incomplete repeating pattern of loom, weaver, and drawboy MET DP11389.jpg|thumb|Drawloom, with drawboy above to control the harnesses, woven as a repeating pattern in an early-18-hundreds piece of Japanese figured silk.]]
A drawloom is for weaving figured cloth. In a drawloom, a "figure harness" is used to control each warp thread separately,{{sfn|Burnham|1980|p=48}} allowing very complex patterns. A drawloom requires two operators, the weaver, and an assistant called a "drawboy" to manage the figure harness.

The earliest confirmed drawloom fabrics come from the [[Chu (state)|State of Chu]] and date c. 400 BC.<ref name="broudy 1979 124">{{harvnb|Broudy|1979|p=124}}.</ref> Some scholars speculate an independent invention in ancient [[Syria]], since drawloom fabrics found in [[Dura-Europas]] are thought to date before 256 AD.<ref name="broudy 1979 124"/>{{sfn|Forbes|1987|pp=218, 220}} The draw loom was invented in China during the Han dynasty ([[State of Liu]]?);{{contradictory inline|reason=that was two centuries later, minimum|date=January 2023}}<ref name="auto">{{Cite book |title=Explorations in the History of Machines and Mechanisms: Proceedings of HMM2012 (History of Mechanism and Machine Science) |url=https://archive.org/details/explorationshist00moon |url-access=limited |last1= Ceccarelli |first1= Marco |last2=López-Cajún |first2=Carlos  |year=2012 |publisher=Springer |pages=[https://archive.org/details/explorationshist00moon/page/n226 219]–220 |isbn=978-9400799448}}</ref> foot-powered multi-harness looms and jacquard looms were used for silk weaving and embroidery, both of which were cottage industries with imperial workshops.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A History of Mechanical Inventions |last= Usher |first= Abbott Payson |year=2011 |publisher= Dover Publications |page=54 |isbn=978-0486255934}}</ref> The drawloom enhanced and sped up the production of silk and played a significant role in Chinese silk weaving. The loom was introduced to Persia, India, and Europe.<ref name="auto"/>