All were attacked as threats to the livelihood of spinners and weavers, and Kay's patent was largely ignored. These innovations transformed the textile industry in Great Britain. The increase in production due to the flying shuttle exceeded the capacity of the spinning industry of the day, and prompted development of powered spinning machines, beginning with the spinning jenny and the waterframe, and culminating in the spinning mule, which could produce strong, fine thread in the quantities needed. Kay's son developed a modification that allowed the use of an array of different shuttles. The operator does not need to touch the shuttle until it needs to be reloaded, so fabrics of great width can be woven but more importantly, the movements needed are greatly reduced.Įven more important was the fact that this mechanism could be automated and powered all the operator needed to do was monitor the machine for failures and keep it supplied with pirns of weft thread, a job that was simplified with the invention of the Northrop Loom, which reloaded the shuttle automatically. This causes the mechanism in the box to shoot the shuttle along the race to the other box then the shed is closed and the beater is used to complete the pick as before. To start the pick, the shed is opened as before however, instead of throwing the shuttle, the operator jerks the cord for the box containing the shuttle.
#Flying shuttle manual
In manual operation, a cord runs to each box from a handle held by the operator. Finally, the flying shuttle is generally somewhat heavier, so as to have sufficient inertia to carry it all the way through the shed. The weft thread is made to exit from the end rather than the side, and the thread is stored on a pirn (a long, conical, one-ended, non-turning bobbin) to allow it to feed more easily. The ends of the shuttle are bullet-shaped and metal-capped, and the shuttle generally has rollers to reduce friction. The shuttle itself has some subtle differences from the older form. 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. A board called the "race" runs along the front of the beater, from side to side, forming a track on which the shuttle runs. In one respect, the term is somewhat misleading, as the shuttle itself is only a component in a new system attached to the loom as part of the beater.
This action (called a "pick") requires a lot of bending forward over the fabric more importantly, however, the coordination between the throwing and catching of the shuttle requires more than one operator if the width of the fabric exceeds that which can be reasonably reached across (typically 60 inches (150 cm) or less). The shuttle must then be caught in the other hand, the shed closed, and the beater pulled forward to push the weft into place.
The operator must then reach forward, holding the shuttle in one hand, and pass it through the shed the shuttle carries a bobbin for the weft. Using treadles or some other mechanism, the heddles are raised and lowered to open the shed in the warp threads. In a typical frame loom, the operator sits with the newly woven cloth before him or her. In order to understand the importance of this invention, it is useful to review the action of weaving prior to it.