MonoMonday: Invented in the 18th Century

My choice for this fab challenge, hosted by Laurie54, is the Flying Shuttle, invented in the 18th Century and patented by English inventor John Kay in 1733. And no, it’s not a NASA spacecraft – that was invented in the 20th Century!

Thanks to Laurie's challenge I’ve had great fun researching this as previously I had very little idea of how a weaving loom works – I didn’t even know my warp from my weft! So just in case you’re as ignorant as I was (unlikely), the warp threads are the multiple parallel threads which are held under tension on the loom, and the weft threads are those which are slotted across them, wiggling (in the simplest type of weave) alternatively in front of and behind adjacent warp threads.

Weft threads are therefore inserted across the warp threads by being pulled across, one row at a time. As they go across, if the previous weft thread went in front of a particular warp thread then the next weft has to go underneath that one. Looms have a clever system of first lifting alternate warp threads (to create a gap – called the “shed” - for the weft thread to pass across) then lifting the other warp threads for the next pass of the weft thread.

Prior to the invention of the flying shuttle, the loom operator sat with the partially woven cloth in front of them, and they had to pass the weft threads across the material manually. This was made a little easier by the thread being wound onto a narrow bobbin which itself was mounted on a shuttle so it was the shuttle which they passed across through the shed from one hand to the other: usually they would actually throw the shuttle from one hand and catch it at the other side with the other hand. If the cloth being woven was wider than about 60 inches, it was a two-person job so that coordination of throwing and catching was quite tricky! (After each pass of the weft thread, a “beater” mechanism pushes the weft thread securely into place.)

The flying shuttle was designed to automate the process and dramatically speed it up. It employs a board, called the "race," which runs, side to side, along the front of the beater, forming a track on which the shuttle runs. The lower threads of the shed rest on the track and the shuttle slides over them. At each end of the race, there is a box which catches the shuttle at the end of its journey, and which contains a mechanism for propelling the shuttle on its return trip.

Flying shuttles are bullet-shaped and have a conical metal cap at each end to enhance their ability to fly across the shed at speed, and often have rollers to reduce friction. Instead of a traditional bobbin, the weft thread is coiled onto a “pirn” - a long, conical, one-ended, non-turning bobbin - to allow it to feed more easily.

Now onto the photo. This was a gift to my Editor many years ago from her Mum, and appears to be a pristine, unused example of a flying shuttle. It doesn’t have any rollers on it, but I assume they would be fixed on using the small screw holes seen on the side facing the camera. I’ve set it up without any thread on it, but you can see the pirn on which the thread would be mounted. The pirn can be removed – the rod on which it’s mounted can pivot upwards to allow the pirn to be fitted or removed and I’ve shown it elevated with the pirn partially inserted onto the rod. Once fitted it would be pushed down flat, and the thread would come out of the small hole visible on the facing side near the left-hand end: there a smooth groove running right along this side so that the thread can slide out first one way then the other.

All this is of particular interest to our family, as many relatives on my Editor’s side worked in the silk mills in Macclesfield in years gone by (Macclesfield was known as “The Silk Town”.) Her maternal grandfather was a silk designer, her grandmother was a silk hemmer and her great uncle Billy was a silk finisher; other family members had jobs as a silk machinist, a silk weaver and a silk piercer. The inset photo from the family archives shows Billy standing by a Macclesfield silk loom.

There’s a Silk Museum in Macclesfield which I’ve been promising myself to visit for very many years – one day I’ll get round to it! For more information, you can go to Youtube and search for “Macclesfield Silk Museum”.

Phew – I think this is the longest blip write-up I’ve ever done!