the power loom
industrailacion project final draft
Edmund Cartwright inventer of the power loom
A weaving machine invented between 1785 and 1787 by Edmund Cartwright. The adoption of the loom required several decades owing to mechanical flaws and fluctuations in demand.The tremendous increase in the supply of yarns, brought about by the appearance of the spinning jenny and other machine-driven spinning devices, stimulated the invention of the power loom. It was one of a series of technological innovations that revolutionized cloth production in England by transforming the organization of labor and the means of production of certain commodities. The loom thus played an important role in the Industrial revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
more about Edmund Cartwright
The son of an English gentryman, Cartwright graduated from Oxford University and entered the anglicanclergy; he served in a country parish. After a visit to a power spinning mill in 1784, Cartwright decided to create a machine-driven loom for weaving. Between 1785 and 1787, he invented the first power loom. He built a weaving mill in 1787, and in 1789 created a combing machine for wool. Cartwright later patented an alcohol engine.
The power loom, however revolutionary in the long term, did not immediately replace hand weavers. The loom had certain mechanical difficulties that caused thread breakage.
Cartwright went bankrupt in 1793, but revived his business activities. By 1809, he was honored by the English Parliament with a monetary award of £10,000.