Editing Loom (section)

==Handlooms to power looms==
{{anchor|handloom}}
{{Main|Power loom}}
[[File:QSMM Two Lancashire looms.ogg|thumb|Two Lancashire looms in the [[Queen Street Mill]] weaving shed, [[Burnley]]]]
[[File:Weben in der Tuchfabrik Müller.ogv|thumb|A 1939 loom working at the [[Mueller Cloth Mill]] museum in [[Euskirchen]], Germany.]]

A power loom is a loom powered by a source of energy other than the weaver's muscles. When power looms were developed, other looms came to be referred to as ''handlooms''. Most cloth is now woven on power looms, but some is still woven on handlooms.<ref name="Know Your Handlooms">{{Cite web |date=2020-10-18 |title=Know Your Handlooms |url=https://dastkarandhra.com/know/know-your-handlooms/ |access-date=2022-03-24 |website=DAMA Handloom Store |language=en-US}}</ref>

The development of power looms was gradual. The capabilities of power looms gradually expanded, but handlooms remained the most cost-effective way to make some types of textiles for most of the 1800s. Many improvements in loom mechanisms were first applied to hand looms (like the [[dandy loom]]), and only later integrated into power looms.

[[Edmund Cartwright]] built and patented a [[power loom]] in 1785, and it was this that was adopted by the nascent cotton industry in England. The silk loom made by [[Jacques Vaucanson]] in 1745 operated on the same principles but was not developed further. The invention of the [[flying shuttle]] by [[John Kay (flying shuttle)|John Kay]] allowed a hand weaver to weave [[broadwoven cloth]] without an assistant, and was also critical to the development of a commercially successful power loom.{{sfn|Marsden|1895|p=57}} Cartwright's loom was impractical but the ideas behind it were developed by numerous inventors in the Manchester area of England. By 1818, there were 32 factories containing 5,732 looms in the region.{{sfn|Guest|1823|p=46}}

The [[Horrocks loom]] was viable, but it was the [[Roberts Loom]] in 1830 that marked the turning point.{{sfn|Marsden|1895|p=76}}{{clarify|date=January 2023}} Incremental changes to the three motions continued to be made. The problems of sizing, stop-motions, consistent take-up, and a [[Temple (weaving)|temple]] to maintain the width remained. In 1841, Kenworthy and [[Howard & Bullough|Bullough]] produced the [[Lancashire Loom]]{{sfn|Marsden|1895|p=94}} which was self-acting or semi-automatic. This enabled a youngster to run six looms at the same time. Thus, for simple calicos, the power loom became more economical to run than the handloom – with complex patterning that used a dobby or Jacquard head, jobs were still [[domestic system|put out]] to handloom weavers until the 1870s. Incremental changes were made such as the [[Dickinson Loom]], culminating in the fully automatic [[Northrop Loom]], developed by the [[Keighley]]-born inventor Northrop, who was working for the [[Draper Corporation]] in [[Hopedale, Massachusetts|Hopedale]]. This loom recharged the shuttle when the [[pirn]] was empty. The Draper E and X models became the leading products from 1909. They were challenged by synthetic fibres such as [[rayon]].{{sfn|Mass|1990}}

By 1942, faster, more efficient, and shuttleless [[Sulzer (manufacturer)|Sulzer]] and [[rapier loom]]s had been introduced.{{sfn|Collier|1970|p=111}}