Editing Power loom (section)

== Looms and the Manchester context==
The development of the power loom in and around [[Manchester]] was not a coincidence. Manchester had been a centre for [[Fustian]]s by 1620 and acted as a hub for other [[Lancashire]] towns, so developing a communication network with them. It was an established point of export using the meandering [[River Mersey]], and by 1800 it had a thriving canal network, with links to the [[Ashton Canal]], [[Rochdale Canal]] the [[Peak Forest Canal]] and [[Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal]]. The fustian trade gave the towns a skilled workforce that was used to the complicated Dutch looms, and was perhaps accustomed to industrial discipline. While Manchester became a spinning town, the towns around were weaving towns producing cloth by the ''putting out'' system. The business was dominated by a few families, who had the capital needed to invest in new mills and to buy hundreds of looms. Mills were built along the new canals, so immediately had access to their markets. [[Spinning (textiles)|Spinning]] developed first and, until 1830, the [[handloom]] was still more important economically than the power loom when the roles reversed.<ref>{{harvnb|Miller|Wild|2007|p=10}}</ref> Because of the economic growth of Manchester, a new industry of precision [[machine tool]] engineering was born and here were the skills needed to build the precision mechanisms of a loom.

===Adoption===
::{| class=wikitable
|+Number of Looms in UK<ref>{{harvnb|Hills|1993|p=117}}</ref>
|Year||1803||1820||1829||1833||1857
|-
|Looms||2,400||14,650||55,500||100,000||250,000
|}

[[Draper Corporation|Draper']] strategy was to standardize on a couple of [[Northrop Loom]] models which it mass-produced. The lighter E-model of 1909 was joined in the 1930 by the heavier X-model. Continuous fibre machines, say for rayon, which was more break-prone, needed a specialist loom. This was provided by the purchase of the Stafford Loom Co. in 1932, and using their patents a third loom the XD, was added to the range. Because of their mass production techniques they were reluctant and slow to retool for new technologies such as shuttleless looms.<ref>{{harvnb|Mass|1990}}</ref>

===Decline and reinvention===
Originally, power looms used a [[Shuttle (weaving)|shuttle]] to throw the weft across, but in 1927 the faster and more efficient shuttleless loom came into use. [[Sulzer Brothers]], a Swiss company had the exclusive rights to shuttleless looms in 1942, and licensed the American production to Warner & Swasey. Draper licensed the slower rapier loom. Today, advances in technology have produced a variety of looms designed to maximise production for specific types of material. The most common of these are [[Sulzer (manufacturer)|Sulzer]] [[shuttleless loom|shuttleless weaving machines]], [[rapier looms]], [[air-jet loom]]s and water-jet looms.<ref>{{harvnb|Collier|1970|p=111}}
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