It seems that in nearly all the earlier types of loom the warp was placed perpendicularly, and it is not until the fourteenth century that we find the loom with the warp stretched hori zontally and the heddle-frames operated by treadles. It was not until the eighteenth cen tury, however, that a succession of improvements started the revolution which has taken place in the art of weaving. The first was a mechanical arrangement to &row the shuttle, instead of the weaver's hand. In 1733 John Kay, of Eng land, invented a device known as the 'flying shuttle' and 'picking-stick'—by which the shuttle received a blow and was driven through the shed. and after the shed had been changed was struck in a similar way at the other end and driven back. By this invention a much more rapid motion was obtained than was possible with the hand shuttle.
At the time of the introduction of the 'flying shuttle' the loom was supplied with a shuttle box at each end of the batten; these shut tle boxes are receptacles which receive the shuttle as it is driven across and release it as it is driven back into the box at the opposite end; they are placed on a level with that part of the batten called the shuttle-race and can receive but one shuttle at a time, so it is obvious that should the weaver wish to introduce more than one color of thread in the filling, the loom must he stopped in order to change shuttles for each change of filling. In 1760 Kay invented the drop box, an attachment consisting of a tier of shuttle boxes, one above the other. The several compart ments of the drop-box attachment could lie filled with shuttles, each containing; a different color of filling, and when a certain color was wanted the box, or compartment, containing that color could be brought to the level of the shuttle-race and the shuttle driven across and back until an other color was wanted. The modern box-loom, or loom having more than one box (as the single-box loom has) at each end of the lathe. as the batten is now generally called, may have two, four, or six boxes at one end and one at the other, or two, three, or four boxes at each end; the latter are called piek-and-piek looms, as the shuttle may be sent across for a single pick of one color and changed at the opposite end for one with a new color, while with a loom having one box at one end it is readily seen that only multiples of two threads of filling can be used no matter how many boxes are at the oppo site end, the shuttle being obliged to cross and return before the color can be changed by the drop-box.
The first successful power-loom was invented in 1785 by Edmund Cartwright (q.v.). Several unsuccessful attempts had previously been made to produee a practical power-loom; early in the seventeenth century there is reported to have been set up in the city of Dantzig "a rare invention for weaving four or five webs at a time without any human help." This mechanism and its author met the fate of many later in ventors, for it is further recorded that "the in vention was supprost because it would prejudice the poor people of the town and the artist was made away secretly." In 167S another power
loom was constructed by a Frenchman named De Gennes, which possessed many of the features of the modern loom: but it never came into prac tical use. In 1762 a power-loom was set up in a weaving-mill in Manchester, but it proved a failure.
Cartwright's first loom was crude, especial ly as the inventor was unacquainted with prac tical mechanics or with the art of weaving; but he continued his efforts until he produced a satisfactory machine. In this pursuit he spent all his time and money, and, as it did not come into general use until his patents had expired, he received no financial return for his labors. In ISOS, however, Parliament voted hint X10.000. tt was said that lie spent fully four times that sum in perfecting his loom.
During the century after Cartwright's inven tion the development of the loom received the attention of hundreds of inventors, and at the beginning of the twentieth century we find a vast number of different types in operation. all embodying, however, the fundamental principles of the original..
The simplest type of modern power-loom is shown in Fig. 2. The loom-frame supports two horizontal shafts, A, B, one above and a little back of the other and so geared together that the upper shaft, to which the power is applied, makes two revolutions to one of the lower. The upper shaft is supplied with two cranks, one at each end, near the frame, to which the lathe, 4, is attached with short connecting-rods, and as the shaft revolves it imparts to the lathe a recipro cating motion as the latter swings on the pivot, 5, 5, at the bottom of the loom-frame. The lower shaft is supplied with certain attachments called cams, near the centre, which work in contaet with the loom-treadles, C, D; the latter are eon fleeted to the harness-frames, xy, xy, suspended from a roller, 3, 3, above, and as the shaft re volves first one is depressed and then the other, forming sheds with the warp as in the hand loom. The lower shaft is also supplied with certain appliances, 6, 6, which act on two special roeker-shafts, 7, 7, one at each end of the loom, placed at right angles to and in a horizontal plane above the lower shaft and each having an arm. 9, to which is connected a picker-stick, g, g: these pieker-stieks are so arranged that when the lower shaft revolves the action on the short rocker-shafts causes the picker-stiek on one side to be :jerked quickly toward the warp which is being woven and to throw the shuttle from that side of the loom through the shed into the 0/utile-box, H, H. at the opposite end, where it remains until the filling is beaten up by the action of the lathe, and the harness change position, forming a new shed, when the secant! picker-stick is acted on as was the first and the shuttle is driven back to its former position and the operation is repeated continuously.