loom

Any machine for weaving yarn or thread into cloth. The first looms are thought to have been used to weave sheep's wool in about 5000 BC. A loom is a frame on which a set of lengthwise threads (warp) is strung. A second set of threads (weft), traditionally carried in a shuttle, is inserted at right angles over and under the warp.

In most looms the warp threads are separated by a device called a heddle to create a gap, or shed, through which the shuttle can be passed in a straight line. A kind of comb called a reed presses each new weft tight against the previous ones. All looms have similar features, but on the power loom, weaving takes place automatically at great speed. Mechanization of weaving began in 1733 when British inventor John Kay invented the flying shuttle. In 1785 British inventor Edmund Cartwright introduced a steam-powered loom. Among recent developments are shuttleless looms, which work at very high speed, passing the weft through the warp by means of ‘rapiers’, and jets of air or water.