Power loom with belt driven shuttle, c. 1860

Model of a power loom of c. 1860, with belt-driven shuttle, scale 1:6, with a half size model of its special shuttle patented by S. C. Salisbury in 1860.

In the system pioneered by Richard Arkwright in the textile industry, production machinery powered by water wheel or steam engine became concentrated in factories. Full-size equivalents of this model loom (a machine for weaving thread into cloth) were driven in this fashion. This type, patented by Silas Salisbury, used a special belt-driven shuttle.

This loom was partially successful but was eventually abandoned. The chief feature of the loom is the method of driving the shuttle and the fact that the beating up motion of the slay is dispensed with. A pin on a belt engages in the shuttle carriage and moves the carriage along the track. The shuttle presses the weft against the fixed reed, thus avoiding the use of a beat up motion. The heddles, harness and reed are of the usual construction but are actuated by the shuttle carriage at each end of its travel.