Media Category: supplement

The Bailey loom was manufactured in Lodi, OH. This jack loom is called the “rehabilitation loom” and was developed for use in physical therapy.

The counterbalance loom at the Old Chelmsford Garrison House ready to assemble after cleaning. Many loom parts lean up against a white-painted wooden wall.

Heddle construction on the Chelmsford loom required “knit heddles.” The process involves knots and loops. It’s done in two steps: first one side, and then the heddle eye, and then the other side.

Khmer loom diagram, courtesy of Fukuoka Art Museum. A long, narrow counterbalance floor loom. It has three shafts and three treadles visible and is fairly low to the ground. The spaces between the legs, braces, and beams are all open.

Traditional reel for silk used by Khmer weavers. The reel as a whole is black lacquered wood with red accents and includes a base, a support for the reel axel, and a reel. The reel support is a carved figure. The reel itself has 8 rods that run parallel to the axel, creating a barrel shape. There is no visible crank-mechanism to turn the reel.

View of Khmer loom from weaver’s bench. Woven red cloth in the foreground, the beater bar with the shafts hanging behind it. Of note, the three treadles are parallel to the weaver’s bench.

Weavers’ Barn at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum in Vista, CA, showing rows of handweaving looms. There are four rows of looms spanning the width and length of the room. There are over two dozen looms shown.

Small 15″ Burnham direct tie-up jack floor loom with 4 shafts and 4 treadles.

Walling 45″ floor loom with 8 shafts and 10 treadles. Jack loom with a “cam-action” type of “Loom Harness Lifting Apparatus” patented by Bill Walling in 1960.

“Binder Precision Action” loom. Large jack loom with 8 shafts and 10 treadles

Beaming the warp on the counterbalance floor loom in the Old Garrison House in Chelmsford, MA.

Old reeds that came with the loom in the Old Garrison House. There are marks carved into the ends of the reeds that appear to be non-standard Roman numerals, including “X”es , “I”s and bars crossing multiple “I”s.

Bernat Superior Loom Model 131-B Collapsible Floor Loom with 8 shafts and 10 treadles. Jack loom, unwarped.

Black and white photograph from Bernat loom catalog showing the “folding feature” of the Bernat 131-B loom. The loom is shown from the side and resembles a wooden clothes-drying rack with many extra pieces.

“Guildcraft Silent Speed Loom,” warped. A fairly narrow, vertical floor loom that looks similar to a tapestry loom. It appears that it can be woven on in either a horizontal or vertical orientation, and has a patented shed mechanism.

Pilling hand loom on display at Helmshore Textile Museum, Lancashire, England.

Pilling Dandy loom with dobby shedding mechanism and fly shuttle drop boxes for four shuttles.

Band-loom beater knives and shuttle bobbins. Three metal-bladed beater knives arranged horizontally above two shuttle bobbins and a measuring stick showing inches. The shuttle bobbins are approximately 2.5–3 inches (6.3–7.6 cm). The beater knives are arranged by length. The top beater knife has both the shortest blade (about 4 inches (10.1 cm)) and the shortest handle (about 4 inches long (10.1 cm)). The longest knife has a blade approximately 5 inches (12.7 cm) long and a handle that is about 4.5 inches (11.5 cm) long. All three beater knifes have turned-wood handles and an attached cord or tether.

Metal beater knife being used on a Swedish band loom.

Three looms in a weaving studio in Saldus, Latvia. The loom in front is the oldest and largest.

Two looms in a room of a Saldus weaving studio. The one in the rear of the room is typical of those found on farms.

Early 19th-century barn-frame four-post loom at John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead in Haverhill, MA.

Three-shaft loom from Swedish immigrant family in Ripley’s Loom Museum.

Ad for The Newcomb Rag Carpet Loom. A blonde woman in a long red dress with a white apron stands in front of wooden loom with fly shuttle. There is a plaid carpet on loom.
Advertisement text: “The Newcomb Fly Shuttle Rag Carpet Loom.” (Newcomb Loom Company, 1912)

Advertisement for “The Cylinder Filling Machine” also called a pony. Small three legged structure that can be sat on while feeding strips of fabric into cylinders.
Advertisement text: “The Cylinder Filling Machine. One sent free with every Fly-Shuttle Loom.” (Newcomb Loom Company, 1912)Advertisement text: “The Cylinder Filling Machine. One sent free with every Fly-Shuttle Loom.”

1912 advertising brochure for “The Weavers Friend” Hand Loom. Brochure shows a two harness loom with metal frame, cloth beam behind shafts, almost under warp beam.
Advertisement text:
“The Newcomb Loom Co. Their looms are light running.
The Newcomb Loom Co. Their looms are reliable.
‘The Weavers Friend’ Hand Loom.
Hand Shuttle, Steel Frame, Steel Reed, Steel Heddles.
Light Running
Easy Learned
Good Carpets
Large Trade
The Newcomb Loom Co.
Davenport, Iowa.”
(Newcomb Loom Company, 1912)

Patent diagram for Charles Newcomb’s 1885 patent for his loom shuttle #330,144A. Cylinders fit within a wooden frame.

Advertisement for Newcomb No. 3 Loom. Two harness with fly shuttle, wooden frame, cloth beam in front.
Advertisement text: “No. 3—Two Harness—Fly Shuttle Loom. Only $81.10 with warping Outfit. Everything complete for weaving.” (Newcomb Loom Company, 1912)

Norman Kennedy weaving a blanket on 82″-wide warp-weighted loom. Large wooden frame. Window weights provide tension on handspun warp.

Diagram of barrel loom as described by Clinton G. Gilroy in his Art of Weaving by Hand and Power in 1845.

Restored French Canadian loom belonging to Carlisle [Massachusetts] Historical Society. Wooden frame with parallel diagonal pieces holds large wooden warp beam. On each side a castle holds rod for pulleys to hold four shafts, and also the crosspiece for the overhead beater. Only two of the four treadles are shown.

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Early 19th century four-post, 4-shaft, counterbalance loom Diane used for her apprenticeship.

Loom at James House in Hampton, New Hampshire (USA). A large, 4-shaft counterbalance floor loom. The house was built by a weaver, Benjamin James, in 1723. The loom is came from another site and so is not original to the house, but it is in the style that was in use in New England at that time.

Nadeau Hand-Skill loom, Model 15-N, 4 shaft, an all-aluminum tabletop loom popular in the 1950s. The loom is overall rectangular in shape, with the longer sides parallel to the surface of the table. The wheel and dobby are attached to the top of the castle.