1/22/2024 0 Comments Power loom machine![]() ![]() ![]() They succeeded in adapting the British design, and the machine shop established at the Waltham mills by Lowell and Moody continued to make improvements in the loom. Upon his return, he recruited master mechanic Paul Moody to help him recreate and develop what he had seen. While visiting English textile mills, he memorized the workings of their power looms. Francis Cabot Lowell realized that for the United States to develop a practical power loom, it would have to borrow British technology. Successful power looms were in operation in England by the early 1800s, but those made in America were inadequate. For these reasons, weaving was the last step in textile production to be mechanized. In a power loom, movements coordinated by human hand and eye have to be replicated through the precise interaction of levers, cams, gears, and springs. And weaving, as opposed to spinning, requires a cycle of sequential steps and involves reciprocal movement as well as circular. Because the operations of a loom focus on such a small working area, its movements must be exact. All cloths were woven in basically the same way, although weavers followed patterns to produce cloths with intricate weaves. Yarn produced by machines in water-powered factories was still put out for weaving on hand looms in homes. ![]() Photo by Jlpapple (CC BY 3.0 ) For the first two centuries of American history, the weaving of cloth was a cottage industry, even after the introduction of power spinning frames in 1790. Power looms at the Boott Cotton Mills at Lowell, Massachusetts. ![]()
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