Little Red Shop - Northrop Looms

The pictures on this page are all of Northrop/Draper looms. (

, being

the

principal

inventor, they were named Northrop looms. Sometimes on this site

you'll see them

referred to as

Draper looms and sometimes as Northrop looms.) The

one at the top is a 36" A

model, the

middle one is a 36 " K, and the one at the

bottom is a 40" C.

The 36" A was the first Draper automatic loom. Actually,

that would make it the first

Draper loom of

any kind

. Before that, the Draper companies had produced other

types of textile machinery, but not

looms.

The first

were sold in 1894.

While the card on the loom says it was the

first Draper loom, I doubt this one was

built in the

1890s. There is another little card on it that says

1932. It may be that

they were still building the

same model, probably with a few modifications by

that

time.)

The card on the 36" K says it was built in 1918 for exhibition purposes. It was

designed primarily

to weave rayon.

The 40" C was built in 1938, also for exhibition purposes. It is an automatic shuttle

changing

loom, (unlike the more common bobbin changing looms) "which many mill

men deemed

necessary to weave first quality synthetic goods."