Roberts Loom

Roberts was educated by the parish priest, and early found employment with a boatman on the Ellesmere Canal and later at the local limestone quarries.

He received some instruction in drawing from Robert Bough, a road surveyor, who was working under Thomas Telford.

The major components of the loom are the warp beam, heddles, harnesses, shuttle, reed and takeup roll.

The front and back cross rails bifurcate at each side to give a larger binding surface.

Here there is a flywheel to smooth the motion and a crank mechanism to drive the battens (swords) and a toothed wheel.

The shuttle is thrown by two levers attached to the side frame, but activated by a friction roller on the tappet shaft.

The reliable Roberts loom was quickly adopted and again it was the spinning side that was short of capacity.

Essentially, textile production was no longer a skilled craft but an industrial process that could be manned by semi-skilled labour.