Your ancestor probably used a simple 4 harness loom without a flying shuttle... the latter were, I believe, used mainly by large weaving concerns, not a simple village weaver who produced useable fabric for local trade. A lot of things changed in the world of weaving around 1830 (a bad time to be a weaver), when Jacquard looms came into being, and revolutionized weaving. They used something like a punch card that allowed very intricate designs to be made with a Jacquard attachment to the loom. However, I doubt most small town weavers could have afforded a Jacquard 'fix' to their loom, and many went out of business as unable to compete. (an interesting aside is that the word sabotage came into being with the advent of Jacquard looms. In France, I believe it was, weavers saw the 'writing on the wall' and knew they would be phased out by these looms, so they would drop their wooden shoes in the 'works', to stop the process...their wooden shoes were called sabots, thus the word sabotage came into being!!) Hopefully you will only get this message once.....the internet "gremlins" are at my house, today! S. > My emigrant ancestor, John Smith, was a village weaver. In their > little log cabin on 29 acres of land, in London Britain township, the > Smiths had a loom, which was the biggest amount they paid taxes on. > They bought the farm in 1798, probably the year they ended indentured > servitude, and they lost the farm in 1832 when the first textile mills > opened in New Garden and most local village weavers were ruined. The > holder of the mortgage foreclosed on it. > > What kind of loom did they have? I've asked this before, but I didn't > et the detail of if it would have had a flying shuttle.

. . . . and the Jacquard loom was the earliest ancestor of the modern computer. Genealogy permeates the lives of all things. On 7/7/2012 4:44 PM, Sandra Ferguson wrote: > Your ancestor probably used a simple 4 harness loom without a flying > shuttle... the latter were, I believe, used mainly by large weaving > concerns, not a simple village weaver who produced useable fabric for local > trade. A lot of things changed in the world of weaving around 1830 (a bad > time to be a weaver), when Jacquard looms came into being, and > revolutionized weaving. They used something like a punch card that allowed > very intricate designs to be made with a Jacquard attachment to the loom. > However, I doubt most small town weavers could have afforded a Jacquard > 'fix' to their loom, and many went out of business as unable to compete. > (an interesting aside is that the word sabotage came into being with the > advent of Jacquard looms. In France, I believe it was, weavers saw the > 'writing on the wall' and knew they would be phased out by these looms, so > they would drop their wooden shoes in the 'works', to stop the > process...their wooden shoes were called sabots, thus the word sabotage came > into being!!) > Hopefully you will only get this message once.....the internet > "gremlins" are at my house, today! > > S. > > >> My emigrant ancestor, John Smith, was a village weaver. In their >> little log cabin on 29 acres of land, in London Britain township, the >> Smiths had a loom, which was the biggest amount they paid taxes on. >> They bought the farm in 1798, probably the year they ended indentured >> servitude, and they lost the farm in 1832 when the first textile mills >> opened in New Garden and most local village weavers were ruined. The >> holder of the mortgage foreclosed on it. >> >> What kind of loom did they have? I've asked this before, but I didn't >> et the detail of if it would have had a flying shuttle. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PA-OLD-CHESTER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >