Lancashire Loom
Encyclopedia
The Lancashire Loom was a semi-automatic power loom
Power loom
A power loom is a mechanized loom powered by a line shaft. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough, made the operation completely automatic. This was known as the...

 invented by James Bullough and William Kenworthy in 1842. Although it is self-acting, it has to be stopped to recharge empty shuttles. It was the mainstay of the Lancashire cotton industry for a century.

James Bullough

James Bullough (1800–68) was from Accrington
Accrington
Accrington is a town in Lancashire, within the borough of Hyndburn. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, north of Manchester city centre and is situated on the mostly culverted River Hyndburn...

, often described as a simple-minded Westhoughton
Westhoughton
Westhoughton is a town and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. It is southwest of Bolton, east of Wigan and northwest of Manchester....

 weaver. Originally a handloom weaver, unlike others of his trade Bullough embraced new developments such as Edmund Cartwright
Edmund Cartwright
Edward Cartwright was an English clergyman and inventor of the power loom.- Life and work :...

's power loom
Power loom
A power loom is a mechanized loom powered by a line shaft. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough, made the operation completely automatic. This was known as the...

 (1785). While colleagues were busy rejecting new devices such as in the power-loom riots
Power-loom riots
The power-loom riots of 1826 took place in Lancashire, England, in protest against the economic hardship suffered by traditional handloom weavers caused by the widespread introduction of the much more efficient power loom...

 that broke out in Lancashire in 1826, Bullough improved his own loom by inventing various components, including the "self-acting temple" that kept the woven cloth at its correct width, and a loose reed
Reed (weaving)
A reed is part of a loom, and resembles a comb. It is used to push the weft yarn securely into place as it is woven, separates the threads and keeps them in their positions, keeping them untangled, and guides the shuttle as it moves across the loom. It consists of a frame with lots of vertical...

 that allowed the lathe to back away on encountering a shuttle trapped in the warp. Bullough also invented a simple but effective warning device which rang a bell every time a warp thread broke on his loom. Bullough moved to Blackburn and worked with William Kenworthy at Brookhouse Mills, with whom he applied his inventions to develop an improved power loom that later became known as the "Lancashire Loom". He was forced to quit Blackburn, for fear of angry handloom weavers. He later settled in Accrington
Accrington
Accrington is a town in Lancashire, within the borough of Hyndburn. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, north of Manchester city centre and is situated on the mostly culverted River Hyndburn...

 to form Howard & Bullough
Howard & Bullough
Howard & Bullough was a firm of textile machine manufacturers in Accrington, Lancashire. They were the world's major manufacturer of power looms in the 1860s.-History:...

 in partnership with John Howard at Globe Works, alongside the Leeds-Liverpool Canal in Accrington. Here he invented the slasher, which founded the company's success. He was one of the country's largest manufacturers. At the height of the business the Globe works employed almost 6000 workers and covered 52 acres (210,436.7 m²). 75% of production was exported.

Howard and Bullough became part of the Textile Machinery Makers Limited group, which were bought out by Platt, and in 1991 the company name changed to Platt Saco Lowell. The Globe works closed in 1993.

The Loom

From 1830 there had been a series of incremental improvements to the basic Roberts Loom
Roberts Loom
The Roberts Loom was a cast iron power loom introduced by Richard Roberts in 1830. It was the first loom that was more viable than a hand loom, it was easily adjustable and reliable thus widely used in Lancashire cotton industry. - Richard Roberts :...

.
  • Richard Roberts
    Richard Roberts
    Richard Roberts may refer to:* Richard Roberts , British engineer* Richard W. Roberts, American judge*Richard Roberts , Anglican Archdeacon of St Asaph...

     1830, Roberts Loom. These improvements were a geared take up wheel and tappets to operate multiple heddles
  • Stanford, Pritchard and Wilkinson – patented a method to stop on the break of weft or warp. It was not used.
  • William Dickinson of Blackburn Blackburn Loom the modern overpick loom

There now appear a series of useful improvements that are contained in patents for useless devices
  • Hornby, Kenworthy and Bullough of Blackburn 1834 – the vibrating or fly reed
  • John Ramsden and Richard Holt of Todmorden 1834 – a new automatic weft stopping motion
  • James Bullough of Blackburn 1835 – improved automatic weft stopping motion and taking up and letting off arrangements
  • Andrew Parkinson 1836 – improved stretcher (temple
    Temple (Weaving)
    A temple is a device used on a loom to improve the edges of the fabric. It may be made of wood or metal. Metal is useful for rugs....

    ).
  • William Kenworthy and James Bullough 1841 – trough and roller temple
    Temple (Weaving)
    A temple is a device used on a loom to improve the edges of the fabric. It may be made of wood or metal. Metal is useful for rugs....

     (became the standard), A simple stop-motion.


At this point the loom has become fully automatic, this is the Kenworthy and Bullough Lancashire Loom. The Cartwight loom weaver could work one loom at 120–130 picks per minute- with a Kenworthy and Bullough's Lancashire Loom, a weaver can run up to six looms working at 220–260 picks per minute- thus giving 12 times more through put. The power loom is now referred to as "a perfect machine", it produced textile of a better quality than the hand weaver for less cost. An economic success.
Other improvements were the
  • James Bullough 1842 – the loose reed, which doubled the operating speed
  • John Sellers 1845 – Burnley
    Burnley
    Burnley is a market town in the Burnley borough of Lancashire, England, with a population of around 73,500. It lies north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Brun....

     Brake, a loom brake
  • Blackburn 1852 – Dickinson Loom  Modern overpick- or side pick using the cone and bowl that substituted the lever pick. Invented in Dickinson's mill.

Movements

The three primary movements of a loom are shedding, picking, and beating-up.
  • Shedding: The operation of dividing the warp into two lines, so that the shuttle can pass between these lines. There are two general kinds of sheds: "open" and "closed". Open Shed-The warp threads are moved when the pattern requires it-from one line to the other. Closed Shed-The warp threads are all placed level in one line after each pick.
  • Picking: The operation of projecting the shuttle from side to side of the loom through the division in the warp threads. This is done by the overpick or underpick motions. The overpick is suitable for quick-running looms, whereas the underpick is best for heavy or slow looms.
  • Beating-up: The third primary movement of the loom when making cloth, and is the action of the reed
    Reed (weaving)
    A reed is part of a loom, and resembles a comb. It is used to push the weft yarn securely into place as it is woven, separates the threads and keeps them in their positions, keeping them untangled, and guides the shuttle as it moves across the loom. It consists of a frame with lots of vertical...

     as it drives each pick of weft to the fell of the cloth.

Economics

The principal advantage of the Lancashire loom was that it was semi-automatic, when a warp thread broke the weaver was notified. When the shuttle ran out of thread, the machine stopped. An operative thus could work 4 or more looms whereas previously they could only a single loom. Indeed the term A Four Loom Weaver
Four Loom Weaver
Four Loom Weaver , probably derived from "The Poor Cotton Weaver" is a 19th-century English lament on starvation. One source also names it Jone o Grinfilt though this title usually refers to different lyrics and score, which is about the naiveté of country folk...

was used to describe the operatives. Labour cost was quartered. In some mills an operative would operate 6 or even 8 looms, although that was governed by the thread being used. By 1900, the loom was challenged by the Northrop Loom
Northrop Loom
The Northrop Loom was a fully automatic power loom marketed by George Draper and Sons, Hopedale, Massachusetts beginning in 1895. It was named after James Henry Northrop who invented the shuttle-charging mechanism. -The Loom:...

, which was fully automatic and could be worked in larger numbers. The Northrop was suitable for coarse thread but for fine cotton, the Lancashire loom was still preferred. By 1914, Northop looms made up 40% of looms in American mills but in the United Kingdom, labour costs were not as significant and they only supplied 2% of the British market.

External links

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