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loom
weaving
- Key People:
- Jacques de Vaucanson
- Related Topics:
- Jacquard loom
- bobbin
- shuttle
- heddle loom
- heddle
loom, machine for weaving cloth. The earliest looms date from the 5th millennium bc and consisted of bars or beams fixed in place to form a frame to hold a number of parallel threads in two sets, alternating with each other. By raising one set of these threads, which together formed the warp, it was possible to run a cross thread, a weft, or filling, between them. The block of wood used to carry the filling strand through the warp was called the shuttle. The fundamental operation of the loom remained unchanged, but a long succession of improvements were introduced ...(100 of 325 words)