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A


later, allowed the operative to tend two looms instead of


one. The speed of the common power loom at this time


does not seem to be recorded, but it was probably between


80 and 100 picks per minute. In 1820 it is figured that there


were about 15,000 power'looms in England and Scotland


and in 1830 perhaps 60,000. In 18H there were 100,000,


but even as late as 1840 there were said to be 25' 0,000 hand


looms still running. At this time weavers in England were


not given more than one loom each, although in America


they were running two looms, as the English manufacturers


did not adopt the rotary temple so early as our American


manufacturers. As to the comparative production of the


common looms at this period, it is difficult to find any ac­curate


basis of comparison. Hand looms were weaving


print cloth as late as 1896 in Bohemia, where the production


fIgured on 64 picks per inch in the cloth at ten hours per


day would give an average of 3~ picks per minute. I


have been given figures of hand loom production


recently that would suggest a' possible speed of 60 picks


per minute. About 1840 the weft fork began to be


introduced and in America by 185' 0 print looms were


running at a speed of 150 picks per minute, with one oper­ative


tending four looms. Perhaps they ran even faster


in England, but the operatives only tended two looms.


From this period to 189~ the plain loom was not materially


changed in principle, and yet the perfection of detail had


brought the speed of the American plain loom up to 190


picks with one good weaver tending eight looms, while the


English operative with looms at a speed of 220 picks per


minute was tending four looms, though usually with a


helper. In 1895 the Northrop looms then introduced im­mediately


allowed one weaver to run 16 print looms at 190


picks and today it is assumed that a good weaver with the


Northrop loom on prints can easily tend 24. In calling the


speed of the American print loom 190 picks it is not intended


to give a maximum. American print looms have run over


200 picks, but such is not the general practice. In the


same way English looms have run higher than 220 picks,


but the figures given are assumed as fair for the purposes


of comparison and as illustrating the general practice. It is


my purpose next month to draw some interesting conclu­sions


from these figures.


• • •


per minute per operative in the earliest use. Cloth is still


woven by this method in India, although a harness motion


is added. History gives us no record of the time at which


the warp threads were divided by


harnesses and the shuttle introduced.


References are made to shuttles in


the Bible and other ancient books.


- It is probable that the general styles


of hand loom weaving were very


similar for many centuries with­out


defInite change until the inven­tion


of the fly shuttle by John Kay


in 17H. At this time, in weaving


broad cloth, it was necessary to have two weavers at


least, one at each end of the lay to throw the shuttle to


the other. By Kay's in­vention


one of these two


men was dispensed with


and even on narrow


weaving a weaver could


produce at least twice as


much cloth per day.


No literature that I have


run across gives any flg- ~" Iii~~:;


ures of production on


the looms of this period and considering their crudeness in


other lines, it is perhaps fair to assume that they could not


produce at a greater speed than 20 picks per minute before


Kay's time, probably averaging less. Kay's invention


caused great commotion amongst the weaving trade and


he was forced by persecution to leave the country. Cart­wright's


power loom patent was granted in 178~. Author­ities


differ as to the success of his first looms, some claiming


that the early use was of no importance, while others refer


to a mill of ~ oo looms in which Cartwright was interested,


as being destroyed in 1790 by a mob in sympathy with the


hand loom weavers. Whatever the cause, there were as


late as 1813 but 2400 power looms in all Great Britain.


The first power loom was introduced in Waltham in Amer­ica


in 1815. At this period one operative was req~ ired to


each loom, as they had no weft stop motion and no self


acting temples, the weaver having to intermittently move


the flat wooden pieces with points at the end which held the


cloth extended at the selvage. The invention of the rotary


temple by Ira Draper in 1816, as developed several years

Cotton Chats 1904, No. 23, Page 2-3