Vaucanson's Automatic Loom

2019. Loom on display at the Musée des Arts et Métiers

2019. Right hand shuttle tube carriage

2019. Right hand shuttle tube carriage

2019. Shuttle

2019. Showing the worm and wheel gearing for the winding-on roll

2019. L.H. shuttle carriage and hand-cranked shafts with bevel gears. The gears are relatively modern

2019. Showing the cams which operate the treadles

2019. The punched controlling drum is visible here

2019. The crank handle which provides the entire motive power is visible here

Métier à tisser les étoffes façonnées de Vaucanson.

In 1745-48 the brilliant French inventor and engineer Jacques de Vaucanson designed a loom intended to partially automate the work of the drawman and the weaver. The mechanism, the shuttle and the beater were driven by cams while the fabric was regularly wound on. It did not find commercial application.

The photographs show a reconstruction of the machine displayed at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris. See also Museum webpage here.

It is not clear how much of the machine is original.

The museum also have a scale model of the loom, made by Jean Marin in 1855. It is not on display, Photo here. Museum's listing here.

The machine was illustrated and described in detail in the Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale in 1853.

See Also

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