Flying shuttle

What it is

A wheeled shuttle, driven by cords and boxes, allowing a single weaver to weave wide cloth at twice the speed. It unbalanced thread production and triggered the mechanisation of spinning.

It closes out the period, but it was the textile trigger of the Industrial Revolution.

What it led to

• A thread shortage that prompted the spinning jenny and the water frame
• The mechanisation of the Lancashire cotton industry
• Weavers' riots against Kay, an early form of Luddism

Built on

• European horizontal treadle loomc. 1100
• Hand shuttle

Made possible

• Cylinder carding machine1748
• Spinning jennyc. 1764
• Water frame1769
• Power loom1785
• Northrop automatic bobbin-changing loom1894
• Sulzer projectile loom1953-1955
• Water frame (1769)

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