Northrop automatic bobbin-changing loom
Telar automático Northrop de cambio de canilla
- Date
- 1894 · confidence high
- Place
- Hopedale, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- James Henry Northrop (Draper Corporation)
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A loom that automatically replaces the empty bobbin in the shuttle without stopping the machine. One weaver went from minding 2-3 looms to 20 or more, and it was the dominant cotton loom until the mid-20th century.
Northrop, born in Keighley, England, worked at Draper from 1881; the bobbin-change patent dates from 1894. There were earlier automatic looms (Stimpson, 1850s) that were less successful.
What it led to
- drastic cut in labour per metre of cloth
- expansion of the cotton industry of the American South
- model for the Toyoda Type G automatic loom (1924)