††A loom is a machine for weaving cloth. Pictures of hand looms on pottery dating from as early as 4400 BC have been found in Egypt. Simple hand looms remained the only method of weaving until the 18th century, when new 'automatic' features were developed in Britain. The first changes began with the invention of John Kay's flying shuttle in 1733. This device enabled the shuttle to be propelled back and forth with a degree of automation, vastly increasing output. Demand for yarn also increased, encouraging improvements to the spinning process to be devised. The power loom was invented by Edmund Cartwright in 1785 and modern looms are power driven using either a flying shuttle, or air or water jets to blow the weft thread across the warp thread.
