
4 0 c m
29cm
actual image size: 21cm x 32cm
Description
Plate taken from the 'Official Catalogue of the Great Exhibition' (Vol 1), published in 1851, showing a 'modern' power loom alongside an earlier one. Looms are used in weaving - the proces of interlacing two or more yarns at right angles to produce a fabric. The invention of the power loom by Edmund Cartwright (1743-1823) in 1786, in which the shuttle is moved acros the warp automatically, dramatically increased the speed at which cloth could be woven and enabled more complicated designs to be produced.
Image Details
Image Ref.
10321572
© Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library