From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Draper power loom in Lowell, Mass. US

A woman in Konya works at a vertical loom.

An early nineteenth century Japanese loom with several heddles, which the weaver controls with her foot.

A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.

Weaving

See Weaving for more information.

See Textile manufacturing terminology for more terms connected with looms.

Weaving is done by intersecting the longitudinal threads, the warp, i.e. "that which is thrown across", with the transverse threads, the weft, i.e. "that which is woven".

The major components of the loom are the warp beam, heddles, harnesses, shuttle, reed and takeup roll. In the loom, yarn processing includes shedding, picking, battening and taking-up operations.

• Shedding. Shedding is the raising of the warp yarns to form a shed through which the filling yarn, carried by the shuttle, can be inserted. The shed is the vertical space between the raised and unraised warp yarns. On the modern loom, simple and intricate shedding operations are performed automatically by the heddle or heald frame, also known as a harness. This is a rectangular frame to which a series of wires, called heddles or healds, are attached. The yarns are passed through the eye holes of the heddles, which hang vertically from the harnesses. The weave pattern determines which harness controls which warp yarns, and the number of harnesses used depends on the complexity of the weave. Two common methods of controlling the heddles are dobbies and a Jacquard Head.

• Picking. As the harnesses raise the heddles or healds, which raise the warp yarns, the shed is created. The filling yarn in inserted through the shed by a small carrier device called a shuttle. The shuttle is normally pointed at each end to allow passage through the shed. In a traditional shuttle loom, the filling yarn is wound onto a quill, which in turn is mounted in the shuttle. The filling yarn emerges through a hole in the shuttle as it moves across the loom. A single crossing of the shuttle from one side of the loom to the other is known as a pick. As the shuttle moves back and forth across the shed, it weaves an edge, or selvage, on each side of the fabric to prevent the fabric from raveling.

• Battening. As the shuttle moves across the loom laying down the fill yarn, it also passes through openings in another frame called a reed (which resembles a comb). With each picking operation, the reed presses or battens each filling yarn against the portion of the fabric that has already been formed. The point where the fabric is formed is called the fell. Conventional shuttle looms can operate at speeds of about 150 to 160 picks per minute.^[1]

With each weaving operation, the newly constructed fabric must be wound on a cloth beam. This process is called taking up. At the same time, the warp yarns must be let off or released from the warp beams. To become fully automatic, a loom needs a filling stop motion which will brake the loom, if the weft thread breaks.^[1] An automatic loom requires 0.125 hp to 0.5 hp to operate.

Types of loom

Back strap loom

A back strap loom with a shed-rod.

A simple loom which has its roots in ancient civilizations comprising two sticks or bars between which the warps are stretched. One bar is attached to a fixed object and the other to the weaver usually by means of a strap around the back. On traditional looms, the two main sheds are operated by means of a shed roll over which one set of warps pass, and continuous string heddles which encase each of the warps in the other set. The weaver leans back and uses her body weight to tension the loom. To open the shed controlled by the string heddles, the weaver relaxes tension on the warps and raises the heddles. The other shed is usually opened by simply drawing the shed roll toward the weaver. Both simple and complex textiles can be woven on this loom. Width is limited to how far the weaver can reach from side to side to pass the shuttle. Warp faced textiles, often decorated with intricate pick-up patterns woven in complementary and supplementary warp techniques are woven by indigenous peoples today around the world. They produce such things as belts, ponchos bags, hatbands and carrying cloths. Supplementary weft patterning and brocading is practiced in many regions. Balanced weaves, too are possible on the backstrap loom. Today,commercially produced backstrap loom kits often include a rigid heddle.

Warp weighted loom

The warp-weighted loom is a vertical loom that originates from Ancient Greece, and spread throughout Europe thereafter.^[2] Its defining characteristic is hanging weights which keep the warp thread taut. Frequently, extra warp thread is wound around the weights. When a weaver has reached the bottom of his creation, they can roll the completed section around the top beam, and unwind the extra warp thread from around the weights to continue. This frees the weaver from vertical size constraints.

Handloom

Elements of a foot-treadle floor loom

Wood frame Seat for weaver Warp beam- let off Warp threads Back beam or platen Rods – used to make a shed Heddle frame - heald frame - harness Heddle- heald - the eye Shuttle with weft yarn Shed Completed fabric Breast beam Batten with reed comb Batten adjustment Lathe Treadles Cloth roll- takeup

Hand loom at Hjerl Hede, Denmark, showing grayish warp threads (back) and cloth woven with red filling yarn (front).

The earliest looms were wooden vertical-shaft looms, with the heddles fixed in place in the shaft. The warp threads pass alternately through a heddle and through a space between the heddles (the shed), so that raising the shaft raises half the threads (those passing through the heddles), and lowering the shaft lowers the same threads—the threads passing through the spaces between the heddles remain in place.

Haute lisse and basse lisse looms

Looms used for weaving traditional tapestry are classified as haute lisse looms, where the warp is suspended vertically between two rolls, and the basse lisse looms, where the warp extends horizontally between the rolls.

Power looms

A power loom used in Ettayapuram

A Picanol Rapier Loom

Edmund Cartwright built and patented a power loom in 1785, and it was this that was adopted by the nascent cotton industry in England. A silk loom was made by Jacques Vaucanson in 1745, which used the same ideas but it wasn't developed further. The invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay had been critical to the development of a commercially successful power loom.^[3] Cartwright's loom was impractical but the ideas were developed by numerous inventors in the Manchester area in England, where by 1818 there were 32 factories containing 5732 looms.^[4]

Horrocks loom was viable but it was the Roberts Loom in 1830 ^[5]that marked the turning point. Before this time hand looms had out numbered power looms. Incremental changes to the three motions continued to be made. The problems of sizing, stop-motions, consistent take-up and a temple to maintain the width remained. In 1841, Kenworthy and Bullough produced the Lancashire Loom^[6] which was self-acting or semi-automatic. This enables a 15-year-old spinner to run six looms at the same time. Incrementally, the Dickinson Loom, and then the Keighley born inventor Northrop working for Draper in Lowell produced the fully automatic Northrop Loom which recharged the shuttle when the pirn was empty. The Draper E and X model became the leading products from 1909 until they were challenged by the different characteristics of synthetic fibres such as rayon.^[7]

From 1942 the faster and more efficient shuttleless Sulzer Looms and the rapier looms were introduced.^[8] Modern industrial looms can weave at 2000 weft insertions per minute.^[9] Today, advances in technology have produced a variety of looms designed to maximize production for specific types of material. The most common of these are air-jet looms and water-jet looms.

Patents

• U.S. Patent 0,000,169 – Loom

See also

• Timeline of clothing and textiles technology
• Weaving (mythology)
• Shuttle (weaving)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Collier 1970, p. 104
2. ^ Crowfoot 1936, p. 36
3. ^ Marsden 1892, p. 57
4. ^ Guest, Richard (1823). "The Compendious History of Cotton-Manufacture". pp. 46. http://www.spinningtheweb.org.uk/a_results.php?x=7&y=2&QueryName=KeyWord&KeyWords=Compendious+History. Retrieved Feb 2009. 
5. ^ Marsden 1892, p. 76
6. ^ Marsden 1892, p. 94
7. ^ Mass 1990
8. ^ Collier 1970, p. 111
9. ^ S. Rajagopalan, S.S.M. College of Engineering, Komarapalayam, http://www.pdexcil.org/news/40N1002/advances.htm

Bibliography

• Collier, Ann M (1970). A Handbook of Textiles. Pergamon Press. pp. 258. ISBN 0 08 018057 4, 0 08 018056 6. 
• Crowfoot, Grace (1936/1937). "Of the Warp-Weighted Loom". The Annual of the British School at Athens 37: 36–47. 
• Marsden, Richard (1895). Cotton Weaving: Its Development, Principles, and Practice. George Bell & Sons. pp. 584. http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books.html. Retrieved Feb 2009. 
• Mass, William (1990). [www.h-net.org/~business/bhcweb/publications/BEHprint/v019/p0234-p0244.pdf "The Decline of a Technology Leader:Capabilty, strategy and shuttleless Weaving"]. Business and Economic History. ISSN 089-6825. www.h-net.org/~business/bhcweb/publications/BEHprint/v019/p0234-p0244.pdf.  jojojo

External links

• Loom demonstration video
• "Caring for your loom" article
• "The Art and History of Weaving"
• "Shuttle looms for narrow fabrics"
• The Medieval Technology Pages: "The Horizontal Loom"

Weaving Weaves Basketweave · Charvet · Coverlet · Double weave · Even-weave · Lampas · Oxford · Pile weave · Piqué · Plain weave · Satin weave · Twill · Gabardine Components Textiles · Warp · Weft · Yarn Tools and techniques Chilkat weaving · Fingerweaving · Heddle · Ikat · Inkle weaving · Jacquard weaving · Kasuri · Loom · Navajo rug · Shuttle · Tablet weaving · Tāniko · Tapestry Types of looms Dobby loom · Jacquard loom · Hattersley loom · Lancashire loom · Northrop loom · Power loom · Roberts Loom · Warp weighted loom Weavers Acesas · Ada Dietz · Micheline Beauchemin · Pamphile · John Rylands · Brigitta Scherzenfeldt  · Clara Sherman  · Judocus de Vos

From LoveToKnow 1911

There is more than one meaning of Loom discussed in the 1911 Encyclopedia. We are planning to let all links go to the correct meaning directly, but for now you will have to search it out from the list below by yourself. If you want to change the link that led you here yourself, it would be appreciated.

• Loom (Animal)
• Loom (Machine)

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Wikipedia has an article on:

Loom

Wikipedia

A loom.

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /luːm/, SAMPA: /lu:m/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}

  Rhymes: -uːm

Etymology 1

Middle English lome < Old English gelōma < ge- (“‘perfective prefix’”) + lōma (“‘utensil, tool’”), of unknown origin, akin to Middle Dutch allame (“‘tool’”)

Noun

loom (plural looms)

1. A frame or machine of wood or other material, in which a weaver forms cloth out of thread; a machine for interweaving yarn or threads into a fabric, as in knitting or lace making.
2. That part of an oar which is near the grip or handle and inboard from the rowlock.

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

loom (plural looms)

1. (dated) A loon (bird of order Gaviformes).

Translations

Etymology 3

From Old Norse ljóma (“‘to shine’”)^[1]

Verb

to loom (third-person singular simple present looms, present participle looming, simple past and past participle loomed)

1. To impend; to threaten or hang over.

   The clouds loomed over the mountains.

Translations

References

• Notes:

1. ^ loom in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Dutch

Adjective

loom, lome (comparative lomer, lomere; superlative loomst, loomste)

1. lazy

Adverb

loom

1. lazily

Estonian

Noun

loom

1. animal

From StrategyWiki, the free strategy guide and walkthrough wiki

Loom
Developer(s)	Lucasfilm Games Realtime Associates
Publisher(s)	Lucasfilm Games
Designer(s)	Brian Moriarty
Engine	SCUMM v3 (EGA), SCUMM v4 (VGA)
Release date(s)	MS-DOS  1990 (Floppy disk) FM Towns  1991 MS-DOS  1992 ("Talkie" CD-ROM)
Genre(s)	Adventure
System(s)	MS-DOS, Mac OS, Amiga, Atari ST, FM Towns, TurboGrafx-CD, Steam

Loom was Lucasfilm Games' first, and so far, only purely fantasy adventure game, written by Brian Moriarty.

The backstory of Loom is revealed in an audio cassette included in the game package that shows the nature of the Loom world, its division to the Guilds, and the strange creation of a baby, out from the magical Loom of the Guild of Weavers.

In Loom, you play the role of that boy, 15 years later, called Bobbin Threadbare. His aim is to find rest of his Guild who have been "Transcended" into swans in order to evade the coming of the Third Shadow, or Chaos. The game was noted for its minimalistic approach: it was relatively easy, its duration was short, had a limited interface, no inventory or item puzzles, and most interaction was done with the usage of musical spells (instead of commands).

The game was planned to be followed by two sequels which were never produced.

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